Library of Congress. 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Chap 
Shel 







Eucalyptus Globulus. 



FoE\^EST Culture 



Eucalyptus Trees. 



e!iljx_i"^7Vooxd cdoo:e':eifl. 



The only Complete and Reliable Work on the Eucalypti 
Published, in the United States. 



SAN FRANCISCO: 
Cubery k Company, Steam Book and Ornamental Job Printers, 

No. 414 Market Str(?e[, below Saasome. 
1876. 

T3w 



.A'^ 






CONTENTS. 



Page. 
Introduction 5 

Forest Culture and Australian Gum-trees : A Lecture 
(third of a series), delivered by EUwood Cooper, Nov. 
26, 1875, before the Santa Barbara College Association.. 9 

Descriptions of Thirty-two Varieties of Eucalyptus- 
trees : Copied from the Pamphlets of Baron Ferd. von 
Mueller 31 

Description of Twenty Varieties : Copied from the Plant • 
Catalogue of Anderson, Hall & Co. , Sydney '. 40 

Forest Culture in its Relations to Industrial Pur- 
suits : By Baron Ferd. von Mueller 45 

Application of Phytology to the Industrial Purposes 

OF Life : By Baron Ferd. von Mueller 121 

Australian Vegetation : By Baron Ferd. von Mueller — 167 

Santa Barbara College Catalogue 205 



INTRODUCTION. 



In presenting to the public a printed copy of ray 
^^ Lecture on Forest Planting and Australian Gum- 
Trees,^ ^ delivered before the Santa Barbara College 
Association, for the benefit of the library, it is neces- 
sary to preface the lecture by the statement that it 
appears in print in consequence of repeated demands 
for the publication from several localities in the south- 
ern part of California. Forest protection, the want 
of trees, in almost every part of the State, is mani- 
fest to all owners of land, who are eager to begin the 
planting ; the only question being — What shall we 
plant ? The rapidity of growth of the Blue Gum, 
and the facility with which it can be propagated, 
is a feature of great importance ; but information is 
wanted. Much that has been written on the subject 
is mere speculative theories, often contradictory, and 
too uncertain to merit the confidence necessary to 
base such an important industry. This industry not 
only necessitates that the protection should be cheap- 
ly and quickly obtained, but that the tree should have 
a value for mechanical or other purposes. This value 
gives confidence to the planter, without which it can 
not be expected the work will go on. The inquiry 
comes, What is the value of the tree ? This is the 



6 ii^TRODUCTION. 

vital question to the man who invests money, time, 
or labor in the enterprise, and the question I have 
aimed to answer. 

In treating of forest - planting I have, to some 
extent, done nothing more than give the opinions 
of great writers on the subject, and in their own 
language. 

The sources of original ideas in any subject are few. 
I have, therefore, thought it wiser to copy than give 
anything of my own, less impressive. 

In a short essay the subject could not be handled 
with anything like completeness, and in gathering 
together fragments from the writings of Franklin B. 
Hough, the Hon. Geo. P. Marsh, Prof. Lovoe, and 
others, I have selected that which I thought most 
valuable, having in view but the one purpose — to 
present something to the public that would impress 
them with the importance of this industry. 

In the investigation I learned, through my corre- 
spondence with the Hon. Thos. Adamson, Jr., Unit- 
ed States Consul - general at Melbourne, that Baron 
Ferd. von Mueller, of Australia, had published sev- 
eral pamphlets on the ^^Eucalyptus-trees, and the Im- 
portance of Forest Culture,'''' but that a copy could not 
be obtained. Mr. Adamson, however, wrote that the 
Baron would send the copies in his possession provid- 
ed I would have them published at my own risk, in 
a connected form. I have deemed the subject of so 
great and vital importance that I present to the pub- 
lic, in this book, a part of the writings of this valua- 
ble author : 

First — "Descriptions of Thirty .two Varieties of the 
Eucalypti Family. " 



iN'tRODUCTION. 7 

Second ''Forest Culture in its Relations to Indus- 
trial Pursuits." 

Third. — " Application of Phytology to the Indus- 
trial Purposes of Life." 

Fourth. — " Australian Vegetation." 

I have in addition to the above the following, which 
will soon appear in a separate volume : 

First. — << The Trees of Australia, Phytologically 
Named and Arranged, with Indications of their Ter- 
ritorial Distribution." 

Second. — ''The Principal Timber-trees Readily 
Eligible for Victorian Industrial Culture, with Indi- 
cations of their Native Countries, and some of their 
Technologic Uses." 

Third, — "Select Plants (exclusive of timber-trees) 
Readily Eligible for Victorian Industrial Culture, 
with Indications of their Native Countries and Some 
of their Uses." 

Fourth. — " Additions to 'Select Plants.' " 

Fifth " Second Supplement to the ' Select Plants. ' " 

Sixth. — "The objects of a Botanic Garden in Rela- 
tion to Industries." 

Ellwood Coopeb. 



FOEEST CULTUKE 

AND 

A LECTU RE 

(Third of a Series) 
Delivered by ELLWOOD COOPKR,, 

November 26th, 1875, befobk the Santa Bareaba College Assoclation. 



<' The presence of stately ruins in solitary deserts is 
conclusive proof that great climatic changes have 
taken place within the period of human history, in 
many eastern countries, once highly cultivated and 
densely peopled, but now arid wastes. 

<< Although the records of geology teach that great 
vicissitudes of climate, from the torrid and humid 
conditions of the coal period to those of extreme cold 
which produced the glaciers of the drift, may have in 
turn occurred in the same region, we have no reason 
to believe that any material changes have been brought 
about, by astronomical or other natural causes, within 
the historic period. We cannot account for the changes 
that have occurred since these sui|ipurnt and sterile 
plains, where these traces of man's first civilization 
are found, were clothed with a luxuriant vegetation, 
except by ascribing them to the improvident acts of 



10 FOREST CULTURE AND 

man in destroying the trees and plants which once 
clothed the surface and sheltered it from the sun and 
the winds. As this shelter was removed the desert 
approached, gaining new power as its area increased, 
until it crept over vast regions once populous and fer- 
,tile, and left only the ruins of former magnificence." 
'< There are parts of Asia Minor, of Northern Africa, 
of Greece, and even of Alpine Europe, where the 
operation of causes set in action by man has brought 
the face of the earth to a desolation almost as com- 
plete as that of the moon. And though, within the 
brief space of time men call the ^ historical period,^ 
they are known to have been covered with luxuriant 
woods, verdant pastures, and fertile meadows, they 
are now too far deteriorated to bereclaimable by man. 
Nor can they become again fitted for human use except 
through great geological changes, or other mysterious 
influences or agencies of which we have no present 
knowledge, and over which we have no prospective 
control. The earth is fast becoming an unfit home for 
its noblest inhabitants, and another era of equal human 
crime and human improvidence, and of like duration 
with that through which traces of that crime and im- 
providence extend, would reduce it to such a condition 
of impoverished productiveness, of shattered surface, 
of climatic excess, as to threaten the depravation, 
barbarism, and perhaps even extinction of the spe- 
cies." 

'< In European countries, especially in Italy, Germany, 
Austria, and Frajace, "where the injuries resulting 
from the cutting off of timber have long since been 
realized, the attention of governments has been turned 
to this subject by the necessities pf the case, and con» 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 11 

servative measures have, in many Instances, been 
successfully applied, so that a supply of timber has 
been obtained, by cultivation, and other benefits re- 
sulting from this measure have been realized." 

In these countries there are over two dozen schools 
of forestry, where special instruction is imparted to 
the youth who are to take the future care of the pub- 
lic forests and private plantations. 

The attention of our Government was called to the 
importance of reserving timber for our navy, and an 
Act was passed March 1, 1817, making reservations 
of public lands for this purpose. This Act, however, 
proved ineflTectual, and has along time since been dis- 
regarded, and there is nothing at the present time to 
prevent the complete destruction of every wooded 
spot in the country. 

'< The preservation of forests is one of the first inter- 
ests of society, and consequently one of the first du- 
ties of government. All the wants of life are closely 
related to their preservation ; agriculture, architect- 
ure, and almost all the industries seek therein their 
aliment and resources, which nothing could replace. 

" Necessary as are the forests to the individual, they 
are not less so to the state. It is from thence that 
commerce finds the means of transportation and ex- 
change, and that governments claim the elements of 
their protection, their safety, and even their glory. 

<< It is not alone from the wealth which they offer by 
their working, under wise regulation, that we may 
judge of their utility. Their existence is of itself of 
incalculable benefit to the countries that possess them, 
as well in the protection and feeding of the springs 
and rivers as in their prevention against the \vashing 



12 FOREST CULTURE AND 

away of the soil upon mountains, and in the beneficial 
and healthful influence which they exert upon the 
atmosphere. 

<< Large forests deaden and break the force of heavy 
winds that beat out the seeds and injure the growth 
of plants ; they form reservoirs of moisture ; they 
shelter the soil of the fields, and upon hill-sides, where 
the rain-waters, checked in their descent by the thous- 
and obstacles they present by their roots and the trunks 
of trees, have time to filter into the soil and only find 
their way by slow degrees to the rivers. They regu- 
late, in a certain degree, the flow of the waters and 
the hygrometrical condition of the atmosphere, and 
their destruction accordingly increases the duration 
of droughts and gives rise to the injuries of inunda- 
tions, which denude the face of the mountains. 

''The destruction of forests has often become to 
the country where this has happened a real calamity 
and a speedy cause of approaching decline and ruin. 
Their injury and reduction below the degree of pres- 
ent or future wants is among the misfortunes which 
we should provide against, and one of those errors 
which nothing can excuse, and which nothing but 
centuries of perseverance and privation can repair. 

" But there is another and more cheering era in this 
history. This is when civilization has advanced, and 
man, under the safeguard of laws, sets about restoring 
the desolated forest. The cultivation of wood then 
becomes an art founded upon principles, and pursued 
for the gratification of taste, or for purposes of utility. 
Like every one who labors from choice, the planter 
experiences gratification in his pursuit. The little 
tree which he places in the ground quickly becomes 



EUCALYPTUS TEEES. 13 

a part of the landscape around ; and thus the taste is 
gratified almost as soon as the work is done. In a few 
years more his woods yield shelter from the winds, 
and thus increase the value of the lands around, while 
it is rarely beyond the expectations of human life to 
look for a direct profit from the wood as it advances 
to maturity. To expend capital on planting, indeed, 
is merely to lay out a fund to increase at interest. 
Planting, then, may be readily rendered the means, 
on the part of a landed proprietor, of setting aside a 
fund for any specific purpose — as for a provision for a 
family ; and no man is deemed peculiarly disinterest- 
ed who merely obeys a dictate of reason and humanity 
and provides for his descendants. The planter, then, 
has his motives of rational interest to justify him in 
the opinion of those who look only to gain. He lays 
out his capital with a view to a profitable return. He 
improves the value of his estate, while, in the prac- 
tice of his art, he finds the materials of an innocent 
recreation. It may be questioned whether, in the 
whole range of rural occupations, one more interesting 
pursuit presents itself than the superintendence of a 
growing wood, presenting to the eye at every season 
new objects of interest and solicitude. Where is the 
planter who would wish the workmanship of his hands 
undone, and who does not look with an honest pride 
on the beautiful creation which, with a generous spirit, 
he has raised up around him ?" 

These considerations present a problem not difiicult 
of solution — possibly difiicult to educate land-owners 
of their truthfulness. 

We must make the people familiar with the facts 
and the necessities of the case. It must come to be 

*2 



14 FOBEST CULTURE ANt) 

understood that a tree or a forest planted is an invest- 
ment of capital, increasing annually in value as it 
grows, like money at interest, and worth at any time 
what it has cost, including the expense of planting 
and the interest which this money would have earned 
at the given date. The great masses of our rural 
population and land-owners should be inspired with 
correct ideas as to the importance of planting and 
preserving trees, and taught the profits that may be de- 
rived from planting waste spots with timber, where 
nothing else would grow to advantage. They should 
learn the increased value of farms which have the 
roadsides lined with avenues of trees, and should un- 
derstand the worth of the shelter which belts of tim- 
ber afford to fields, and the general increase of wealth 
and beauty which the country would realize from the 
united and well-directed eiforts of the owners of land 
in thus enriching and beautifying their estates. 

The demand for lumber increases in the United 
States at the rate of twenty-five per cent, per annum. 
The decrease of forests is at the rate of 7,000,000 acres 
annually. Few people have any idea of the immense 
value of the wood which is used for purposes gen- 
erally considered unimportant. The fences of the 
United States are now valued at $1,800,000,000, and 
it costs, annually, $98,000,000 to keep them in repair. 
By far the greatest proportion of these are wood. The 
railroads of the United States use 150,000,000 of ties 
annually. 

There are establishments manufacturing articles of 
wood alone, numbering 118,684, employing 7,440,000 
persons, and using wood valued at $554,000,000 an- 
nually. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 15 

A seventy-four gun ship swallows up no less than 
150,000 cubic feet, requiring 2,000 large, well-grown 
timber trees. Supposing these trees should stand 
thirty-three feet apart, it would require the timber of 
fifty acres to build one such ship. 

According to a statistical table published by our 
Government in 1874, there was in the New England, 
Middle, and Western States an average of thirty- three 
per cent, of wooded land. <■ <■ In France and Germany it 
has been estimated that at least one fifth of the land 
should be planted with forest trees in order to main- 
tain the proper hygrometric and electric equilibrium 
for successful farming." <<Mirabeau estimated that 
there should be retained in France thirty-two per cent, 
of land in wood." In the State of Texas, it is represent- 
ed that there is an area four times that of the State of 
Pennsylvania, without a tree or a shrub. In Califor- 
nia there is only 4/0 per cent. It is to this State I 
call your attention, and to this people my lecture is 
directed. We have, perhaps, the most healthful, 
most equable, the best climate on this globe, and the 
only objections that can be urged are the prevailing 
high wind, and an uncertain, as well as an insuffi- 
cient, quantity of rain-fall. Moderate the winds, in- 
crease the rain, and we have perfection. This result 
is so easily and so quickly to be obtained that it ought 
to have the attention and serious consideration of every 
land-owner in the State. How is this to be done ? 
How are we to obtain this result ? By planting for- 
est trees. I would recommend belts from 100 to 150 
feet in width, each quarter of a mile, planted at right 
angles with the prevailing direction of the winds, 
and to line all the highways, parallel with or to the 



l6 FOREST CULTURE AND 

general currents, with belts of two or three rows, 
closely planted. This planting would occupy about 
one eighth of the land. Then again, it would be par- 
ticularly desirable to plant all the banks of gulches, 
four or five rows on either side, in order to prevent 
further washing; also, all steep side-hills inconvenient 
to cultivate, or any waste lands that are non-produc- 
ing. Trees will grow in places where nothing else 
can be cultivated. A soil too coarse and meager for 
the cereals may be raarvelously productive in forest 
growth. Ravines and slopes too steep for any other 
useful product are the favorite seats of timber. Tak- 
ing belts of land situated similarly to that part of Santa 
Barbara county lying between Point Conception, Rin- 
con Point, the Santa Inez Mountains, and the ocean, 
if planted as above, fully one fourth would be occupied 
by trees. It is known and proved that the three 
fourths of the surface will produce more, if protected 
by trees planted on the other fourth, than the whole 
would without the trees, and without the protection. 
Consequently the possessor loses nothing in the pro- 
ductiveness of his farm, but, on the contrary, he in- 
creases the certainty of his crops, decreases one fourth 
his labor, beautifies his home, improves the climate, 
doubles the value of his land, receives inspiration 
from this work of his own hands, elevates his own 
condition, and adds to the refinement of himself, his 
family, and all his surroundings. 

By reason of the mildness of the climate and the 
discovery of the Eucalyptus^ or what is known as Aus- 
tralian Gum-tree, we can, in our generation, create 
forests of these trees, and bring about all these condi- 
tions to be enjoyed by ourselves. No other country 



EUCALYPTUS TKEE8. 17 

is SO susceptible ; to no other country can we look for 
equal results. 

* The Eucalyptus globulus (known as the Blue Gum, 
and so generally admired in California) is a native 
of Tasmania. It has received the name Eucalyptus on 
account of the formation of the seed-pods. The name 
is from two Greek words, signifying '< I conceal well," 
the cup for a long time concealing the stamens. The 
name globulus was taken from the resemblance to a but- 
ton. The discovery was made by a French botanist 
by the name of Labillardiere. This gentleman was a 
member of a French expedition, fitted out in 1791, and, 
quoting from his journal: << 12th May, 1792. [The 
expedition was then in the port of Entrecasteaux, in 
the Bay of Tempests, Van Dieman's Land.] I have 
not yet boen able to procure the flowers of a new spe- 
cies of Eucalyptus, remarkable for its fruit, which 
resembles a coat-button. This tree, which is one of 
the tallest in nature, since it measures upward of 
one hundred and sixty feet, only blooms toward its 
upper extremity. The wood is suited to naval con- 
struction, and is durable, but neither so light nor so 
elastic as pine. This beautiful tree, of the myrtle 
family, is covered with a smooth bark ; the branches 
bend a little as they rise, and are garnished at the 
extremities with alternate leaves, slightly curved, 
and about seven inches in length and nearly two in 
width. The flowers are solitary, and grow out of the 
axils of the leaves. The bark, leaves, and fruit are 
aromatic, and might be employed for economical uses, 
in place of those which the Moluccas have hitherto 
exclusively furnished us." <<In the history of the 

* Covi'd froin the translation frcpi the French of Prof, 3, E. Plapchon, 



18 FOREST CULTURE AND 

future naturalization of tlie Eucalyptus Mueller is the 
savant who justly calculated the future of the tree, 
traced it in its itineracy, and predicted its destiny. 
Rarael is the enthusiastic amateur who has thrown 
body and mind into the mission of propagating it. 
Both have faith ; but one is a prophet, the other an 
apostle, and, in the noble confraternity of services, 
public gratitude will not separate the names that are 
bound together by friendship." '<The Eucalyptus 
globulus, known as the Blue Gum, was introduced 
into Algeria in 1854, while its name and properties 
were unknown. It is now being planted by hundreds 
of thousands, in groves, in avenues, in groups, in iso- 
lated stalks, in every section of three provinces." A 
colonist and ardent planter, M. Trottier, regarded this 
tree as possessing a forest substance capable one day 
of enriching the colony, and he took for the motto of 
one of his writings the following : << The wood of the 
Eucalyptus will be the great product of Algeria." 
Carrying his confidence still further, he saw the des- 
ert retreating before this colonized tree, and, specu- 
lating upon the incontestible factihat the forest created 
humidity and changed the hygrometrical regime of 
a country, and remembering, besides, the subterrane- 
ous sheets of water beneath the arid surface of this 
region, he boldly named another pamphlet ^^The 
Wooded Desert and Colonies,^^ thus conceiving the idea 
that the great Sahara Desert could be reclaimed 
by planting this tree. He estimated the profits from 
planting the Eucalyptus in the colonies of Algeria to 
be from one thousand stalks, in five years, to yield 
a gross revenue of $240, and $10,650 in twenty-six 
years. He based the estimate on the annual growth, 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 19 

from actual measurement, of four and one half inches 
in circumference yearly. At Hamma and at Cannes, 
near Algiers, the growth in height of young trees 
averages nineteen inches per month. A stalk one 
year old, planted in May, attained the height of 
nineteen feet the following December ; the year after 
it grew nineteen feet ; the year after it grew nine- 
teen feet ; the latter part of the third year this 
impulse diminished, but, at the end of fifteen years, 
the tree was over seventy feet in height. 

At <<Ellwood," my home, twelve miles west of Santa 
Barbara, I have growing about fifty thousand trees. 
The oldest were transplanted in February, three years 
ago. These trees, however, have not done so well as 
those planted one year later, for the reason that the 
roots were too much confined — the transplanting 
delayed too long. The best growth obtained, under 
the most favorable circumstances, is a tree growing 
near my house, three years and one or two months 
from the seed. Transplanted two years and ten 
months, is nine and one half inches in diameter and 
forty-two feet six inches high. There is another tree 
near by, same age, transplanted at the same time, 
not so large in the trunk, but has attained the height 
of forty-flve feet six inches, equal to forty-seven hun- 
dredths of an inch per day, fourteen and seven nine- 
teenths inches per month, and, in order to attain a 
height of four hundred feet, would have to continue 
on growing at this rate for twenty-eight years. Nine 
and one half inches in diametet for three years and 
two months is equal to three inches yearly, or nine 
and forty- three hundredths in circumference yearly. 
To make a tree sixteen feet in diameter would have 



20 FOREST CULTURE AND 

to continue on growing in the same ratio for sixty- 
four years. My last planting was June 25th. The 
seeds were sown six months before. These trees were 
purposely Icept back — stunted, I may say — as I 
desired to transplant them only after the disappear- 
ance of grasshoppers. From the 25 th of June these 
trees, averaging six to eight inches in height, have 
now reached six feet (or a great many of them) in the 
short space of five months. The greatest possible 
results have been obtained on every part of my place. 
I have experimented on two steep hill-sides, so stony 
and rocky that plowing or preparing the ground was 
impossible ; putting them in with a pick, without 
water, and after the rains were over. On one hill- 
side I cultivated with the hoe as best I could ; on the 
other did nothing — the mustard, in some places, grow- 
ing up around the trees seven to eight feet high. 
The trees cultivated have done very much better than 
the others. Whether this kind of planting is practi- 
cable can only be determined at the end of the next 
year. 

It is claimed for the Eucalyptus that it resists Sum- 
mer dryness, and profits by the rains of the Autumn, 
Winter, and Spring, wherever the mildness of the 
climate permits it to vegetate without interrui^tion. 
I have made no other special observations with regard 
to the growth of this tree, excepting on Gen. Naglee's 
place, in San Jose, where I found trees, ten years old, 
eighteen inches in diameter, and, I should think, 
eighty to ninety feet high. "jMany species of the 
Eucalyptus are, in their native country, truly gigantic 
trees. A Eucalyptus colossea has measured nearly four 
hundred feet in height, and a Eucalyptus amygdalina 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 21 

from four hundred and sixteen to four hundred and 
seventy-one feet. One of the latter species has reached 
the height of five hundred feet, which is twenty feet 
higher than the Pyramid of Cheops, the tallest struct- 
ure in the world. This tree would cast a shadow 
upon the summit of the great Pyramid. A giant 
Eucalyptus of Tasmania was not less than thirty feet 
in diameter near the soil, the height being about 
three hundred feet. 

Without expecting such vast proportions in gen- 
eral, the Eucalyptus globulus is not the less the lar- 
gest forest-tree in the world — excepting only the 
<< Sequoia Gigantea,^^ or Big Tree of California. << In 
its juvenile state it is a finished type of elegance. In 
its adult period, it is a magnificent representation of 
strength." The trunk can supply immense planks. 
One was sent to the London Exhibition, in 1862, 
measuring seventy-five feet in length, and about ten 
feet in width. Australia desired to send a plank one 
hundred and sixty-five feet long, but no ship could be 
found to transport it. The English Navy begins to 
appreciate the wood for its solidity, durability, and 
tenacity. The best whale-ships that furrow the South 
American Seas are those of Hobart Town ; the keels 
of which are made of the Eucalyptus globulus. The 
wood of the Eucalyptus combines density of texture 
with rapidity of growth. This growth is particularly 
rapid during its juvenile period, but it does not cease 
to grow in height until it is twenty-four years old. 
After this age, the trunks, which are generally very 
straight, only increase in diameter. Compact and 
tenacious, the wood, owing to the presence of resinous 
materials, possesses a sort of incorruptibility, which 



22 FOREST CULTURE AND 

allows it to remain a long time in contact with salt 
water. It is equally durable in the ground as is the 
Oak, and can be employed with advantage for sleep- 
ers for railroads. The durability of the wood makes 
it valuable for the keels of vessels, for the construc- 
tion of bridges, piers, and viaducts, 

'< The Eucalyptus is not only valuable as a wood, 
but has medicinal properties. In Valencia, Spain, it 
is vulgarly called the fever - tree, on account of its 
properties for preventing malarial fevers. There, its 
properties are so well known as a cure for fevers 
that its leaves are often plundered, and in a public 
garden of a great city, it is necessary to surround the 
fever-tree with a guard, in order to preserve it from 
being stripped. It has, also, disinfectant virtues, and 
is antiseptic for wounds — its essential oil being a 
stimulant, and the tannin in the leaves, acting as a 
tonic astringent applied exteriorly, hastens the heal- 
ing of a wound. Various chemists have enumerated 
its uses as an infusion, decoction, powder, distilled 
water, tincture, extract and essence. From the most 
authentic testimony, the Eucalyptus appears or seems 
to be a very efficacious remedy against a great num- 
ber of intermittent fevers. 

^^* Eucalyptus globulus, Blue Gum-tree of Victoria 
and Tasmania. This tree is of extremely rapid growth, 
and attains a height of four hundred feet, furnishing a 
first-class wood. Ship-builders get keels of this timber 
one hundred and twenty feet long; besides this, they 
use it extensively for planking and many other parts of 
the ship, and it is considered to be generally superior 

* Thos. Adamson, Jr., U. S. Conaul-General at Melbourne, copied at my 
request from the pamphlets of Baron Ferd. von Mueller, the deecrlptjoj) 
}l§re given to the j&. g'ZobuJus, and -g. ro.'traia, 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 23 

to American Rock Elm. A test of strength has been 
made between some Blue Gum, English Oak, and In- 
dian Teak. The Blue Gum carried fourteen pounds 
weight more than the Oak, and seventeen and one 
fourth pounds more than Teak upon the square inch. 
Blue Gum wood, besides being used for ship-building, 
is very extensively used by carpenters for all kinds 
of out-door work ; also, for fence-rails, railway sleep- 
ers — lasting about nine years — for shafts and spokes 
of drays, and a variety of other purposes." 

Eucalyptus rostrata, the Red Gum of Victoria, 
South Australia, and many river-flats in the interior 
of the Australian Continent. Although a native tree 
of this colony, it has been introduced into this list on 
account of its wood being of extraordinary endurance 
under ground, and, for this reason, so highly valued 
for fence-posts, piles, and railway sleepers ; for the 
latter purpose it will last at least a dozen years, and, 
if well-selected, much longer. 

It is also extensively used by ship-builders * * *. 
It should be steamed before it is worked for planking. 
Next to the Jarrah, from West Australia, this is the 
best wood for resisting the attacks of sea-worms and 
white ants. For other details of this and other native 
trees I refer to the report of the Victorian Exhibition 
of 1862 and 1867. 

The tree attains a height of fully one hundred feet. 
The supply for our local wants already falls short, and 
it. cannot be obtained from Tasmania, where the tree 
does riot naturally exist." 

In my correspondance with Mr. T. W. Herkimer, 
who lived ten years in Australia and Tasmania, spend, 
jng about half the time in each place, and variously 



24 FOREST CULTURE AND 

engaged in mining, wood-cutting lumbering, con- 
structing telegraph lines, etc., etc., I have learned the 
following : That the general character of the country, 
the climate, the quantity of rain -fall — except that 
they may have a little more rain in Summer in Aus- 
tralia and Tasmania, where the Gum Trees grow — is 
very similar to the Redwood districts of California ; 
the growth being more rapid and the trees larger in 
the coast ranges, ravines, and valleys than in any 
other localities— the nearer the foot of the ranges the 
better. The thicker they are planted, and the thick- 
they grow, the better, as they will shade each other. 
I have always noticed that all trees grow taller and 
straighter where they grow close together. <'A11 
trees grown on an open plain, exposed to the sun and 
wind, will not grow tall, like they do in the forest, 
where they are protected and shaded. I have seen, 
in Australia and Tasmania, Blue Gums larger and 
taller than I have seen Redwood ; many of the Gum 
Trees from fourteen to sixteen feet in diamater, per- 
fectly sound, and, I think, three hundred feet high. 
The Blue Gum, if it could be grown so as to make 
large trees, I think, is the most useful, for it is not 
only good for posts and rails, but ties and piles. 
While I was in Tasmania there was a test made as 
to the value for war purposes. It was found that a 
cannon-ball would pierce the planks, cutting a round 
hole, and passing through, without splitting the 
planks. The experiments were so satisfactory that 
the wood was pronounced as good as English Oak. 

" I was appointed to superintend the construction of 
a telegraph line from the river Lamar, on the north 
coast of Tasmania, to Hobart Town, on the south 



Eucalyptus trees. 25 

coast. We used for poles the young trees of the Blue 
Gum, White Gum, Red Gum, and Stringy-bark, tak- 
ing only the bark off. We charred the butts as far as 
they went into the ground, and dipped in coal-tar. 
They were expected to last ten or twelve years. 
When I finished the construction of the telegraph 
line I was engaged in a saw-mill on the river Mersey, 
The timber that we sawed was, as above mentioned. 
Blue, White, and Red Gum and Stringy-bark ; we 
sawed it for all purposes used in house-building, ex- 
cept rustic and siding. It is used in large quantities 
for piles, wharf, and bridge building. The timber- 
dealers in Melbourne, and all other ports, do not make 
a difference in contracting for a cargo of lumber of 
colonial woods. It is generally expected that it will 
be mixed. Wheelrights always select the Blue Gum, 
it being considered much better for wagon-making 
than most other varieties ; it is stronger and more du- 
rable, and quite equal to the Hickory of this country. 
It is used for axletrees, hubs, spokes, and all parts of 
the running-gear. The Blue Gum is much tougher 
and heavier, and will last longer than any of the oth- 
ers J in fact, it will last a life-time if taken from large 
trees. The wood resembles the Rock Elm of the East- 
ern States. I have rafted a great deal of it ; when 
thrown into the water green will nearly always sink 
to the bottom, so that it is necessary to lash the rafts 
alongside of boats to keep them on the surface. A 
pile sixty feet long, fifteen inches in diameter, will 
require the strength of two men to raise to the sur- 
face. It weighs sixty-seven pounds to the cubic foot. 
<' The Stringy-bark tree has a leaf the same as the 
Blue Gum, and is known in the Australian Colonies 
as the Gum Top Stringy -bark. 



26 FOREST CULTURE AND 

" The Stringy-bark tree has a very thick bark on the 
trunk, and of the same color as the bark of the Red- 
wood. The Blue, White, and Red Gums, after they 
become large trees, shed their bark, which grows in 
growths, the outside layers, too small for the inner, 
crack open, the wind gets between the growths, 
tears it off in strips three or four inches wide, and 
sometimes one hundred feet long ; the debris cover- 
ing the ground at the trunk five or six feet in depth. 

<'The Iron-bark tree does not grow in Tasmania ; 
it is an Australian tree ; has a rough bark, something 
like the bark of the Black Oak of Canada, The bark 
and the wood are very hard and heavy ; will sink in 
water, like a stone ; will last for years ; in fact, I do not 
believe it will ever rot. The largest trees of this va- 
riety I have seen were not over four feet in diameter. " 

Mr. Casey of Melbourne recommends the Eucalyp- 
tus rostrataas being of great value, more hardy than 
the Blue Gum, and possessing all the sanitary proper- 
ties, capable of a high polish, and specially adapted 
for piles and for ship-timber. 

The Eucalyptus globulus, or Blue Gum, is a very 
tender • plant when young. It is an evergreen of 
rapid growth, and the young shoots are injured by a 
few degrees of frost. It is reported that trees have 
been destroyed by cold at New Orleans after reaching 
a height of fifteen feet. 

I have selected from the one hundred to one hun- 
dred and fifty species of the Eucalypti family the fol- 
lowing varieties: Eucalyptus globulus, E. rostrata, E. 
marginata, E. syderoxylon, E. brachypoda, E. obli- 
qua, E. platyphilla, E. phonicea, and E. amygdalina.* 

* The description as given iu the lecture is omitted in this place, as it 
appears more fully on pages 32 to 39. 



EUCALYPTUS TBEES. 27 

Propagation. — My plan of germinating the seeds 
and transplanting to permanent sites is as follows : I 
have found, from repeated experiments, that it is bet- 
ter to germinate the seeds in boxes, a convenient size 
for handling, say two and one half to three feet square 
and six inches deep, placing first about four inches of 
good sandy soil or loam ; then about one inch of pure 
sand (I use sea sand), and cover the sand with sawdust 
made from dry or well-seasoned wood, about one inch 
deep. Plant the seeds in the sawdust half an inch deep 
or more ; thoroughly wet the whole, and keep the top 
moist. If the seeds are fresh and good they will sprout 
and come through on the eighth day. I have found 
no difiiculty in sprouting them in the open air during 
the months t)f August, September, and October. It 
is, however, better to raise them under glass — the 
greater the heat the better success ; but as soon as 
fairly up, put out in the air and sunlight. In six to 
eight weeks after the seeds are planted the trees will 
be large enough for transplanting to permanent sites. 
There is no time that they can be handled with equal 
success as when about six weeks old, or four to six 
inches high. The earth or place in which to be 
planted should be well cultivated, the soil smooth and 
free from clods, the trees set out just before rain, or 
in the evenings with a little water, the ordinary care 
required for setting out cabbage-plants will prove suc- 
cessful with the little Blue Gum plants. It is, how- 
ever, better to take advantage of approaching rains. 
I have, with ten men, transplanted as many as seven 
thousand in an afternoon, and have ninety-five per 
cent. live. The above plan of transplanting is only 
practicable during the rainy season. If the ground is 



28 I^OREST CULTURE AND 

well cultivated during the Winter and kept entirely 
clean the trees can be transplanted at any time dur- 
ing the Summer or dry season. To do this, however, 
it will be necessary to transplant from boxes where 
germinated into other boxes, allowing about three 
inches square of soil and six inches deep, for each lit- 
tle tree, so that the soil with tree can be placed in the 
ground where they are permanently to grow, without 
disturbing or exposing the roots. There should be 
about half a bucket of water to each tree — the water 
put into the hole, and immediately after it disappears 
the tree set in. 

It is estimated of the Blue Gum that there are fifty 
thousand seeds in one pound, and that forty thousand 
will grow, being equal to two thousand five hundred 
to the ounce. 

Eucalyptus rostrata, or Red Gum. — There are, of 
this variety, at least double the number, and equal to 
five thousand trees to the ounce. The plan of germinat- 
ing the seeds of this tree is very similar to that of the 
Blue Gum, excepting that there must be not over half 
the quantity of sawdust, and no sand required ; the 
seeds planted nearer the surface, and more heat neces- 
sary. The manner of transplanting the same as the 
Blue Gum. 

I recommend in forest - planting that the trees be 
set six to seven feet apart, and in rows, where it is 
possible, so as to cultivate with a horse, while the 
trees are small. Six by seven will give one thousand 
trees to the acre. After five years' growth remove 
three fourths of them, leaving about two hundred and 
fifty of the straightest and best trees. My estimate 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 29 

of income from the three fourths to be thinned out is 
as follows : 

Seven hundred fence-posts, worth $100 

Cord wood, worth 100 

tioo 

Expense preparing and marketing 100 

Profits $100, equal to $20 each year, and better 
than barley crops, with all the value left on the 
ground. At the end of fifty years the two hundred 
and fifty trees left standing would be worth $10,000, 
and equivalent to one hundred per cent, profit on the 
investment, allowing the land to be worth $100 per 
acre, and interest compounded at ten per cent, per 
year. M. Trottier's estimate gives as much in half 
the number of years. 

The estimate of profit on one acre of White Ash, in 
the Western States, at the end of twelve years, is 
$600. 

The measurement of trees in Springfield, Ohio, 
twenty years' growth, one foot above the ground : 
Larch, 10^ inches ; Birch, 10 J ; Elm, 14^ ; Spruce, 
14 ; Burr Oak, 15. They are planting in the Prairie 
States one hundred and fifty million trees annually, 
occupying about two hundred thousand acres, and 
equal to about one thirty -fifth of the destruction 
throughout the entire country. 

Humboldt, the great philosopher, said : " Men, in 
all climates, seem to bring upon future generations 
two calamities at once — a want of fuel and a scarcity 
of water." 

A blessing has been pronounced upon the man who 
would make two blades of grass grow in place of one. 
How much more is this due to the man who plants a 
tree where nothing grew before. 



30 FOREST CULTURE AND 

Taking in view the conditions so favorable for tree- 
planting in California, and the great necessity of for. 
est protection, the only wonder is that something as 
I have suggested was not commenced several years 
ago. The reasons are so many and so obvious that 
there is not a question as to the necessity ; and if a 
necessity, it becomes the duty of every land-owner to 
begin at once to plant trees. It is also clear that in 
whatever it is our duty to act it is our duty to study. 
I have therefore thought it worth while to present to 
you in this lecture a few sketches, which cannot but 
prove useful till they give place to something better. 
If the effort creates in the minds of the people an inter- 
est in the subject, all that could be hoped for will be 
accomplished. No one disputes the importance of 
planting on the plan suggested ; neither can the feasi- 
bility be questioned. Contemplate the beauty, the 
grandeur, tlie productiveness of the great valleys of 
the Sacramento, the San Joaquin, the Salinas plain, 
and of every strip of arable land in the State, with 
belts of Eucaly2^tus - trees planted as I have recom- 
mended. With such shelter California would become 
the paradise of the world. 

How is this to be brought about ? By convincing 
owners of land that financially it will be a great suc- 
cess. Individual effort alone must accomplish the 
work. We cannot look to the State for either aid or 
protection, as, in this independent,, free Republic^ the 
Government or the State is powerless in the execution 
of any measure that would compel land-owners to 
plant trees, no matter how urgent the necessity or 
how important the duty. What we have therefore to 
do, as individuals, is to begin at once to plant. It ia 



fetJCALYtTtrs TBEES. ^1 

an obligation we owe to the possessory title to land ; 
and financially we will be amply rewarded for our 
labors. » 

The following I have copied from a pamphlet, en- 
titled '< The Principal Timber-Trees Readily Eligible 
for Victorian Industrial Culture," by Baron Ferd. 
von Mueller. (The same offered to the Victorian 
Acclimation Society — pages 20, 21, and 22): 

EucAL,YPTUS AMYGDALiNA (Labill. ). — In our 
sheltered, springy forest glens, attaining not rarely a 
height of over four hundred feet, there forming a 
smooth stem and broad leaves, producing also seed- 
lings of a foliage different to the ordinary state of 
Euc. amygdalina, as occurs in more open country. 
This species or variety, which might be called Euca- 
lyptus regnous, represents the loftiest tree in British 
territory, and ranks next to the Sequoia WeUingtonia 
in size anywhere on the globe. The wood is fissile, 
well adapted for shingles, rails, for house-building, 
for the keelson and planking of ships, and other pur- 
poses. Labillardiere's name applies ill to any of the 
forms of this species. Seedlings raised on rather 
barren ground near Melbourne have shown the same 
amazing rapidity of growth as those of the Euc. 
globulus; yet, like those of Euc. obliqua, they are not 
so easily satisfied with any soil. 

Eucalyptus citriodoba (Hooker) — Queensland. 
It combines with the ordinary qualities of many Eu- 
calypts the advantage of yielding from its leaves a 
rather large supply of volatile oil, of excellent lemon- 
like fragrance. 

Eucalyptus diversicolor (F. v. Mueller). — The 
Karri of S. W. Australia. A colossal tree, excep- 



§2 i^OREST CULTURE AN13 

tionally reaching to the height of four hundred feet, 
with a proportionate girth of the stem. The timber 
is excellent. Fair progress of growtli is shown by tlie 
young trees, planted even in dry, exposed localities 
in Melbourne. The shady foliage and dense growth 
of the tree promise to render it one of our best for 
avenues. In its native localities it occupies fertile, 
rather humid valleys. 

Eucalyptus globulus (Labill.). — Blue Gum of 
Victoria and Tasmania. This tree is of extremely 
rapid growth, and attains a height of four hundred 
feet, furnishing a first-class wood. Ship-builders get 
keels of this timber one hundred and twenty feet long ; 
besides this, they use it extensively for planking, and 
many other i)arts of the ship, and it is considered to 
be generally superior to American Rock Elm. A test 
of strength has been made between some Blue Gum, 
English Oak, and Indian Teak. The Blue Gum car- 
ried fourteen pounds weight more than the Oak, and 
seventeen pounds four ounces more than Teak, upon 
the square inch. Blue Gum wood, ^besides being used 
for ship-building, is very extensively used by carpen- 
ters for all kinds of out-door work ; also, for fence-rails, 
railway-sleepers — lasting about nine years — for shafts 
and spokes of drays, and a variety of other purposes. 

Eucalyptus gomphocephala (Candolle). —The 
Tooart of S. W. Australia. Attains a height of fifty 
feet. The wood is close-grained, hard, and not rend- 
ing. It is used for ship-building, wheelwright's work, 
and other purposes of artisans. 

Eucalyptus margin ata (Smith) The Jarrah or 

Mahogany tree of S. W. Australia, famed for its inde- 
structible wood, which is attacked neither by che- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 33 

lura, nor teredo, nor termites, and therefore so much 
sought for jetties and other structures exposed to sea- 
water ; also for any underground work, and largely 
exported for railway sleepers. Vessels built of this 
timber have been enabled to do away with all copper- 
plating. It is very strong, of a close grain and a 
slightly oily and resinous nature. It works well, 
makes a fine finish, and is by ship-builders here con- 
sidered superior to either Oak, Teak, or, indeed, any 
any other wood. The tree grows chiefly on iron- 
stone ranges. 

At Melbourne it is not quick of growth, if compared 
to our Blue Gum (Euc globulus, Lab.), or to our 
Stringy-bark (E. ohUqua, '1 Her.), but it is likely to 
grow with celerity in our ranges. 

Eucalyptus rostra ta (Schlechtendal).* — The 
Red Gum of Victoria, South Australia, and many river- 
flats in the interior of the Australian continent. Al- 
though a native tree of this colony, it has been intro- 
duced into this list on account of its wood being of 
extraordinary endurance under ground, and for this 
reason so highly valued for fence-posts, piles, and rail- 
way sleepers ; for the latter purpose it will last at 
least a dozen years, and if well-selected, much long- 
er. It is also extensively used by ship-builders, for 
main stem, stern-post, inner post, deadwood, floor tim- 
bers, futtocks, transoms, knight-head, hawse-pieces, 
cant, stern, quarterand fashion timber, bottom-planks, 
breast-hooks, and riders, windlass, bow- rails, etc., etc. 
It should be steamed before it is worked for planking. 
Next to the Jarrah, from West Australia, this is the 

* Second •uppleinent by the same author. It is said of this variety that 
instances are on record of the stem havinR attained a girth of sixty feet, at 
six feet from the ground, through the formation of buttresses. 



34 FOREST CULTURE AND 

best wood for resisting the attacks of sea- worms and 
white ants. For other details of the uses of this and 
other native trees, refer to the reports of the Victori- 
an Exhibitions of 1862 and 1867. The trees attain 
a height of fully one hundred feet. The supply for 
our local wants falls already short, and cannot be ob- 
tained from Tasmania, where the tree does not nat- 
urally exist. 

Eucalyptus sideroxylon (Cunn). — Iron - bark 
ti*ee. It attains a height of one hundred feet, and 
supplies a valuable timber, possessing great strength 
and hardness. It is much prized for its durability 
by carpenters, ship - builders, etc. It is largely em- 
ployed by wagon - builders, for wheels, poles, etc. ; 
by ship-builders for top-sides, tree-nails, the rudder 
(stock), belaying-pins, and other purposes ; it is also 
used by turners, for rough work. This is considered 
the strongest wood in our colony. It is much rec- 
ommended for railway-sleepers, and extensively used 
in underground mining work. 

[Copied from an additional list ofiFered to the same 
society by the same author, and published by said so- 
ciety in 1874— pages 64, 65, 66, 67, and 68] : 

Eucalyptus acmenoides (Schauer). — New South 
Wales and East Queensland. The wood used in 
the same way as that of E. obliqua (the stringy-bark 
tree), but superior to it. It is heavy, strong, durable, 
of a light color, and has been found good for palings, 
flooring-boards, battens, rails, and many other pur- 
poses of house carpentry. (Rev. Dr.' Woolls.) 

Eucalyptus botryoides (Smith). — From East 
Gipps Land to South Queensland. One of the most 
stately among an extensive nuniber of species, re- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 35 

markable for its dark green shady foliage. It delights 
on river banks. Sterns attain a lengtli of eighty feet 
without a branch, and a diameter of eight feet. The 
timber usually sound to the centre, adapted for water 
work, wagons, knees of boats, etc. Posts of it very 
lasting, as no decay was observed in fourteen years. 

Eucalyptus brachypoda (Turczaninow). — "Wide- 
ly dispersed over the most arid extra-tropical as well 
as tropical inland regions of Australia. One of the 
best trees for desert tracts ; in favorable places one 
hundred and fifty feet high. "Wood brown, some- 
times very dark, hard, heavy, and elastic, prettily 
marked ; thus used for cabinet work, but more particu- 
larly for piles, bridges, and rail way - sleepers. (Rev. 
Dr. Woolls.) 

Eucalyptus calophylla (R. Brown). — South- 
west Australia. More umbrageous than most Eu- 
calypts, and of comparatively rapid growth. The 
wood is free of re.sin when grown on alluvial land- 
but not so when produced on stony ranges. It is pre- 
ferred to that of E. marginata and E. cornuta for 
rafters, spokes, and fence-rails ; it is strong and light 
but not long lasting underground. The bark is valua- 
ble for tanning, as an admixture to Acacia bark. 

Eucalyptus cornuta (Labillardiere). — South- 
west Australia. A large tree, of rapid growth, pre- 
ferring a somewhat humid soil. The wood is used for 
various artisans' work, and there preferred for the 
strongest shafts and frames of carts, and other work 
requiring hardness, toughness, and elasticity. 

Eucalyptus crebra (F. v. Mueller). — The narrow- 
leaved iron-bark tree of New South Wales and Queens, 
land. Wood reddish, hard, heavy, elastic, and dura- 



36 rOKEST CULTURE AND 

ble ; much used in the construction of bridges ; also, 
of wagons, piles, fencing, etc. E. melanoj)hloia (F. v. 
M.), the silver-leaved iron-bark tree, and E. leptoph- 
leba, E. trachyphloia and E. drepanphylla are closely 
allied species of similar value. They all exude as- 
tringent gum-resin in considerable quantity, resem- 
bling kino in appearance and property. 

Eucalyptus doratoxylon (F. v. Mueller). — The 
spear-wood of South-west Australia, where it occurs 
in sterile districts. The stem is slender and remark- 
ably straight, and the wood of such firmness and elas- 
ticity that the nomadic natives wander long distances 
to obtain it as material for their spears. 

Eucalyptus eugenioideh (Sieber). — New South 
Wales. Regarded by the Rev. Dr. WooUs as a fully 
distinct species. Its splendid wood, there, often call- 
ed Blue Gum-tree wood, available for many purposes, 
and largely utilized for ship-building. 

Eucalyptus Gunnii (J. Hooker). — Victoria, Tas- 
mania and New South Wales, at alpine and subalpine 
elevations. The other more hardy Eucalyptis com- 
prise E. coriacea, E. alpina, E. urnigera, E. coccifera, 
and E. verrucosa, which all reach heights covered 
with snow for several months in the year. 

Eucalyptus paniculata (Smith) The White 

Iron-bark tree of New South Wales. All the trees 
of this series are deserving of cultivation, as their 
wood, though always excellent, is far from alike, and 
that of each species preferred for special purposes of 
the artisans. 

Eucalyptus phgenicea, (F. v. Muller) — Carpen- 
taria and Arnheim's Land. Of the quality of the tim- 
ber hardly anything is known, but the brilliancy of 



EUCALYPTUS TBEES. 37 

its scarlet flowers recommends this species to a place 
in any forest or garden plantation. For the same rea- 
son, also, JE. miniata, from North Australia, and E. 
Jicifoliaj from South-west Australia, should be brought 
extensively under cultivation. 

EucAiiYPTUs piLULARis (Smith). — The Black-butt 
tree of South Queensland, New South Wales, and 
Gipps Land. One of the iftst timber-yielding trees 
about Sydney j of rather rapid growth (Rev. Dr. 
Woolls). It is much used for flooring-boards. 

Eucalyptus platyphylla (F. v. Mueller.) — 
Queensland. Regarded by the Rev. Julian Tenison 
Woods as one of the best of shade-trees, and seen to 
produce leaves sometimes one and one half feet long, 
and one foot wide. This tree is available for open, 
exposed localities, where trees from deep forest valleys 
would not thrive. 

Eucalyptus robusta ( Smith ). — New South 
Wales. The timber in use for ship-building, wheel- 
wright's work, and many implements, such as mal- 
lets, etc. 

Eucalyptus besinifera ( Smith ). — The Red 
Mahogany Eucalypt of South Queensland and New 
South Wales. A superior timber - tree, according to 
the Rev. Dr. Woolls, the wood being much prized 
for its strength and durability. 

Eucalyptus siderophloia ( Bentham ). — The 
large-leaved or red Iron-bark tree of New South Wales 
and South Queensland. According to the Rev. Dr. 
Woolls, this furnishes one of the strongest and most 
durable timbers of New South Wales ; with great 
advantage used for railway sleepers, and for many 
building purposes. It is harder even than the wood 



38 FOREST CULTURE. 

of E. sideroxylon, but thus also worked with more diflB- 
culty. 

Eucalyptus tereticorns (Smith). — From East 
Queensland to Gipps Land. Closely allied to JEJ. ros- 
trata and seemingly not inferior to it in value. 

Eucalyptus tesselaris (F. v. Mueller). — N. 
Australia and Queensland. Furnishes a brown, 
rather elastic wood, no^very hard, available for 
many kinds of artisan's work, and particularly sought 
for staves and flooring. The tree exudes much 
astringent gum resin (P. O'Shanesy). Many other 
Eucalypts could have been mentioned as desirable for 
wood culture, but it would have extended this enu- 
meration beyond the limits assigned to it. Moreover, 
the quality of many kinds is not yet suflSciently as- 
certained, or not yet fully appreciated even by the 
artisans and woodmen. 



PLANT CATALOGUE, 

ANDERSON, HALL & CO., SYDNEY. 



N. S. WALES HARDWOOD TIMBER-TREES. 



In many respects, no timbers in the world can com- 
pare with those of Australia. For all purposes requir- 
ing great strength, combined with great durability, 
they are unapproached. Those of New South Wales 
have, as a rule, a reputation in those respects superior 
to thoseof similar species in the other Australian colo- 
nies. This superiority has been noticed more par- 
ticularly in tougher and closer - packed tissues. So 
much is this the case that, for some particular pur- 
poses, such timber as Iron-bark and Blue Gum have 
to be obtained from New South Wales for use in 
Victoria, although both species are common there. 
Among other peculiarly valuable properties possessed 
by our timbers, for such purposes as bridges, jetties, 
or any other buildings where strong timber may be 
used, not the least is the valuable quality of diflScult 
ignition and lack of inflammability. 

Of late years these woods, and the forests which 
produce them, have attracted a great deal of attention 
In Europe, not only for the qualities of the timber, 
but for other properties, which are being from time 
to time discovered by science, and promising extraor- 
dinary riches in both medicine and the arts. 



40 FOREST CULTURE AND 

As a fuel, both for domestic and industrial purposes, 
the wood, natural and carbonized, of some species, is 
superior to most others, and, for steam purposes, some, 
as Iron-bark and Box, are only inferior to coal. 

Possessing so many valuable qualities, combined 
with the fact that these trees are found growing, in 
New South Wales, in boundless forests, under extremes 
of climate, both as to heat and cold — ranging from 
one hundred and thirty to twenty-five degrees Fah- 
renheit — it may be inferred that forests of them will 
some day be planted in many other parts of the world. 

The following list comprises the principal species : 

1. White Gum {Eucalyptus hcemastoma). — Yields 
gum resin largely, is not remarkable for its timber, . 
but is a good domestic fuel. Height, fifty to one hun- 
dred feet. 

2. BiVER White Gum {JE. radiata). — A fair-last- 
ing timber for rough fencing ; difficult to burn ; a bad 
fuel. One hundred feet, 

3. Blue Gum, Common Parbamatta {E. rostrata, 
B. ) — Used in ship-building for knees, beams, and some 
kinds of planking. A very durable wood ; will last 
well as posts in the ground ; inferior fuel. One hun- 
dred and twenty feet. 

4. Flooded Blue Gum (E. eugenoides). — The best 
timber for ship-building (planking in particular) ; very 
durable. One of the best timbers for many purposes ; 
inferior fuel. One hundred and eighty feet. 

i5. Grey Gum OR Red Gum {E. tereticornis). — A 
very strong, durable, hard wood, almost equal to Iron- 
bark for some purposes ; lasts in the ground ; inferior 
fuel. One hundred and fifty feet, 



EUCALYPTUS TKEES. 41 

6. Drooping Gum {U. saligna). — A medium tim- 
ber ; inferior fuel. One hundred feet. 

7. Blue Gum like the Flooded Gum {K goni- 
calyx). Used in sliip-building ; is the best wood for 
felloes in wheels ; very durable ; inferior fuel. One 
hundred and fifty feet. 

8. Spotted Gum (E. maculata). — A very strong, 
light, and elastic timber, very durable as girders or 
beams ; the best wood for staves, and useful for sawn 
timber in household carpentry ; first-class fuel for 
domestic use. One hundred and twenty feet. 

9. Dark or Broad-leaved Iron-bark [E. side- 
rophloia). — The most valuable wood for piles, girders, 
rail way - sleepers, and for every purpose in which 
strength and durability are required ; even shingles 
of one fourth inch thickness have been known to last 
sound on roofs for forty years. This species and the 
two following are the Strongest of all Australian tim- 
bers, and are used for a greater number of purposes — 
spokes, shafts, poles, frames, by wheelwrights ;. the 
best telegraph-posts, fencing of all kinds, and none 
are equal to it for cogs in mill- work. It is superior 
to most as fuel for steam-engines, as it throws off 
more heat, etc., etc. One hundred and fifty feet. 

10. Common Iron-bark {E. 2^ciniciilata)., — For most 
purposes equal to the last species; is less inlocked and 
is more easily split into shingles or palings; it is as last- 
ing and as good fuel as other Iron-barks; the wood is 
not so dark in color. One hundred and twenty feet. 

11. Small-leaved or She Iron-bark [E. micro- 
phylla) (?). — The wood, of this species is used for fenc- 
ing and many purposes the same as the other Iron- 
barks. But the wood being of a nature much more 



42 FOREST CULTITKE AND 

easy to work, it may be used in carpentry in many 
ways, to which the hardness of the other sorts offers 
an obstacle; first-class fuel. One hundred and twenty 
feet. 

12. Stringy-bark [U. obliqua). — The best wood 
for flooring-boards, rafters, and sawn stuff generally ; 
it is of very thick growth, inferior fuel, but produces 
the best charcoal for the forge. One hundred and 
twenty feet. 

13. Black-butt(-E'. pilularis). — Wood like Stringy, 
bark, and used for similar purposes. Small spars of 
this species are used for shipping. It is almost the 
only Eucalyptus that is used for this purpose ; inferior 
fuel. One hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. 

14. Yellow Black-butt (^. obtusijlora.). — Timber 
like the preceding, but softer and more easily work- 
ed, and of a yellow tint. It is a remarkably quick 
grower. One hundred and fifty feet. 

15. Common Box (£". hemijyhloia). — A hard but use- 
ful timber, strong, tough, and durable, but will not 
last as posts or piles sunk in the ground. It is, also, 
a first-class fuel both for domestic use and for steam 
or other industrial purposes. One hundred to one 
hundred and fifty feet. 

16. Messmate, or Almond - leaved Stringy- 
bark (E. amygdalina). — A first-class timber for floor- 
ing-boards, joists, and other house-carpentry. It is 
like Stringy-bark, but the tree is an ace larger, and it 
is not so generally distributed. It is a bad wood for 
domestic fuel, but is a first - rate smiths' charcoal. 
One hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. 

17. Black Box {E. bicolor). — A highly valued tim- 
ber - tree ; it is equal to the best Iron - bark for all the 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 43 

purposes for which that wood is used, and is more 
easily wrought. It is sometimes called <<Iron- bark 
Box." One hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. 

18. WooLLEYBUTT [E. longifolio). — An average- 
sized tree. Fair timber for fencing and building pur. 
poses ; it is a good fuel for domestic use ; very dura- 
ble, and is said to be less liable to the attack of the 
white ant than any other of the Eucalypti. One hun- 
dred to one hundred and twenty feet. 

19. Bloodwood {E. corymbosa). — A very large 
tree. Timber first-class for posts, piles, and such like; 
it is extremely durable in the ground. It is not a 
favorite as sawn timber, on account of its many gum 
veins ; not a good fuel. One hundred and fifty to 
two hundred feet. 

20. Swamp Mahogany {E. robmta). — A good last, 
ing timber for house - carpentry and many kinds of 
turnery. It is not durable in the ground, but for other 
purposes it is very durable, and is not a favorite with 
the white ant. It is not remarkable as a burning 
wood. Its specific gravity is great. One hundred 
and fifty feet. 

Eucalyptus globulus {Tasmania Blue Gum). — 
In the once despised Gum-tree {Eucalyptus) it has 
been discovered that qualities exist which place it 
transcendently above any other plants, if not above 
all other plants, in hygienic importance. 

By its means large tracts of the very richest land 
will be made available in many parts of the world. 
In India, and other parts of Southern Asia, vast areas 
are left without culture or occupation, overrun with 
jungle and forest, and totally unfit for man's abode 
on account of their malaria-producing character. Al- 



44 FOREST CULTURE. 

ready has the malaria-destroying exhalations of Eu- 
calyptus globulus been practically proved beyond a 
doubt in Europe, Africa, and America. It is confi- 
dently stated that in the fatal Roman Pontine Marshes, 
and the no less fatal swamps of Lombardy and other 
parts of Italy, the Eucalyptus globulus has rendered 
healthy, localities in which to sleep a single night 
was all but certain death. 

In America, the Gum-tree is being most extensive- 
ly planted, with the view of making uninhabitable 
districts healthy. In fact, so ample are the proofs of 
its efficacy that millions of malarious acres in all parts 
of the globe where the climate suits it will, within a 
very few years, be planted with <<Blue Gum." 

Eucalyptus globulus has already become noted in all 
temperate climes as '< The Fever- tree," and certain 
it is that it truly deserves the name. Doubtless other 
species of Eucalyptus possess the same beneficial prop- 
erty, but globulus is the only one which has yet been 
so abundantly tested by practical trial. 

It is the easiest of the tribe to rear, and develops 
from the seedling into the tree with great rapidity. 
So great has become the demand from Europe and 
America for seed that the forests of Tasmania are 
threatened with annihilation. To give our friends 
some idea of the demand, we sold have nearly half a 
ton of seed during the past year. . One pound weight 
should produce many thousands of plants ; this will 
give some estimate of the enormous number of trees 
that must now be planted all ov?r the world. 



FOREST CULTURE 



RELATIONS TO INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS: 

.j^ Hj E o T XJ :e=l B , 

DKLIVERED BY 

Baron Ferd. von Mueller, CM. G., M.D, Ph.D., F.R.S. 

(Government Botanist for Victoria, and Director of the Botanic Gardens of 
Melbourne) , 

On the 22d of June, 1871. 



The toils of science swell the wealth of art." 

BuLWEK Lytton, /row Schiller. 



Strange as it may appear, an impression seems to 
be prevailing in these communities that our forests 
have to serve no other purposes but to provide wood 
for our immediate and present wants, be it fuel or 
timber. For even after the warning of climatic 
changes, and after the commencing scarcity of wood, 
no forest administration, at least none adequate or 
regularly organized, has been initiated in any portion 
of Australia ; and thus the forests, even in districts 
already very populous, remain almost unguarded, 
become extensively reduced, and in some localities 
are already annihilated ; indeed, the requirements of 
the current time alone are kept in view. Under such 
circumstances it cannot be surprising that neither an 



46 FOREST CULTURE AND 

universal forest supervision, nor a judicious restraint 
of consumption, nor an ample utilization of all the 
various collateral resources of our woodlands, received 
that serious attention to which such measures became 
more and more entitled. 

During the earlier years of our colonization, while 
the population was but thinly scattered over the ter- 
ritory, or densely concentrated in a few places only, 
all demands on the wood resources were comparatively 
so limited as to cause, perhaps, nowhere vast destruc- 
tion of the timber vegetation, much less any alarm 
for meeting the requirements of the future. Then 
followed the first gold period, with all its bustle, tur- 
moils and agitations, preventing reflection on almost 
anything except the immediate wants of that stormy 
time. Subsequently, when the commotion and ex- 
citement of the earlier gold era had calmed down, 
other obstacles arose, which, in their conflicts, brought 
much sadness on this young country, and retarded 
for years its full progress. But now, when apparent- 
ly also these difiiculties have been surmounted, it will 
be all the more incumbent on our statesmen and legis- 
lators to exclude no longer from their consideration 
and watchfulness that remaining portion of a bequest 
which bountiful Nature, in its rich woods, has in- 
trusted to our care. The maintenance of these forest 
riches should engage not only the loftiest forethought, 
but also a well-guided and scrupulous vigilance. 

How forests beneficially affect a clime, how they 
supply equable humidity, how they afford extensive 
shelter, create springs, and control the flow of rivers — 
all this the teachings of science, the records of history, 
and more forcibly still, the sufferings or even ruin of 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 47 

numerous and vast communities, have demonstrated 
in sad experiences, not only in times long past, but 
even in very recent periods. In what manner the 
forests arrest passing miasmata, or set a limit to the 
spreading of rust -spores from ruined cornfields; in 
what manner their humid atmosphere and their feath- 
ered singers effectually obstruct the march of armies 
of locusts in the Orient, or hinder the progress of vast 
masses of acrydia in North America, or oppose the 
wanderings of other insects elsewhere — all this has 
been clearly witnessed in our own age. How the for- 
ests, as slow conductors of heat, lessen the tempera- 
ture of warm climes, or banish siroqcos ; how forests, 
as ready conductors of electricity, much influence and 
attract the current of the vapors, or impede the elas- 
tic flow of the air, with its storms and its humidity, 
far above the actual height of the trees, and how they 
condense the moisture of the clouds by lowering the 
temperature of the atmosphere, has over and over 
again been ascertained by many a thoughtful observer. 
In what mode forests shelter the soil from solar heat, 
and produce coolness through radiation from the end- 
lessly-multiplied surfaces of their leaves, and through 
the process of exhalations ; how, in the spongy stra- 
tum of decaying vegetable remnants, they retain far 
more humidity than even cultivated soil ; how they 
with avidity re-absorb the surplus of moisture from 
the air, and refresh by a never- wanting dew all vege- 
tation within them and in their vicinity, has been 
explained, not only by natural philosophy, but also 
often by observations of the plainest kind. How for- 
est-trees, by the powerful penetration of their roots, 
decompose the rocks, and force unceasingly from deep 



48 FOREST CULTURE AND 

strata the mineral elements of vegetable nutrition to 
the surface ; how they create and maintain the sources 
for the gentle flow of watercourses for motive power, 
aqueducts, irrigation, water - traffic and navigation ; 
how they mitigate or prevent malarious influences — 
of all this we become cognizant by daily experiences 
almost everywhere around us. We have to look, 
therefore, far beyond a mere temporary wood supply, 
when we wish to estimate the blessings of forest vege- 
tation rightly ; and our mind has to grasp the com- 
plex causes and sequences originating with and de- 
pending on the forests, before their value as a total 
can be understood. 

" Here, in the sultriest season, let us rest : 

Fresh is the green beneath those aged trees ; 
Here air of gentlest wing will fan our breast — 
From heaven itself we may inhale the breeze." 

Btbon. 

Let us then take timely warning ; let us remember 
that denuded earth parts with its warmth by radiation, 
and is intensely heated by insulation ; that thus in 
woodless countries the extremes of climate are brought 
about in rendering the Winter-cold far more intense 
and boisterous, and the Summer-heat far more burning 
and oppressive. Let us remember why the absence 
or destruction of forests involves periodic floods and 
droughts, with all the great disasters inseparable 
therefrom. Let us bear in mind that even in our 
praised Australia many a pastoral tenant saw his herds 
and flocks perish, and even the very kangaroos off his 
run ; how he looked hopefully for months and months 
at every promising cloud which drew up on the hori- 
zon, only to dissolve rainless in the dry desert air ; 
whereas, when the squatter's ruin was completed, 



tlUCALYPTUS TREES. 49 

the last pasture parched, and the last waterpool dried 
up, great atmospheric changes would send the rain- 
clouds over the thirsty land with all the vehemence 
of precipitation, and would convert dry creeks into 
foaming torrents, or inundate with furious floods the 
very pastures over which the carcasses of the famished 
cattle and sheep v/ere strewn about ! Picture to your- 
selves the ruined occupant of the soil, hardly able 
to escape with his bare life from the sudden scenes of 
these tragic disasters ! Fortunately, as yet such ex- 
treme events may not have happened commonly ; yet 
they did occur, and pronounced their lessons impress- 
ively. Let it be well considered that it is not alone 
the injudicious overstocking of many a pasture, or 
the want of water - storage, but frequently the very 
want of rain itself for years in extensive woodless 
districts, which renders occupation of many of our 
inland tracts so precarious. Let it also not be forgot- 
ten how, without a due proportion of woodland, no 
country can be great and prosperous ! Remember 
how whole mountain districts of Southern Europe be- 
came, with the fall of the forests, utterly depopulated,* 
how the gushes of wide currents washed away all ara- 
ble soil, while the bordering flat land became buried 
in debris ; how its rivers became filled with sediment, 
while the population of the lowland were at the same 
time involved in poverty and ruin 1 Let us recollect 
that in many places the remaining alpine inhabitant 
had to toil with his very fuel for many miles up to the 
once wooded hills, where barrenness and bleakness 
would perhaps no longer allow a tree to vegetate I It 
should be borne in mind that the productiveness of 
cereal fields is often increased at the rate of fully fifty 



50 FOREST CULTURE ANP 

per cent, merely by establishing plantations of shelter- 
trees ; that the progress of drift-sand is checked by 
tree-plantations ; and that a belt of timber not only 
affords protection against storms, but also converts 
sandy wastes finally into arable meadows, thus adding 
almost unobserved, yet unceasingly, so far to the re- 
sources of a country. 

Shall we follow, then, the example of those improvi- 
dent populations who, by clearing of forests, dimin- 
ished most unduly the annual fall of rain, or pre- 
vented its retention ; who caused a dearth of timber 
and fuel, by which not solely the operations of their 
artisans became already hindered or even paralyzed, 
but through which even many a flourishing country 
tract was already converted almost into a desert 
Should we not rather commence to convert any desert 
tract into a smiling country, by thinking early and 
unselfishly of the requirements of those who are to 
follow us ? Why not rather imitate the example set 
by an Egyptian sovereign, who alone caused, during 
the earlier part of this century, 20,000,000 of trees 
to be planted in formerly rainless parts of his domin- 
ions. 

Dr. H. Rogers, of Mauritius, issued, this year, a re- 
port <<on the effects of the cutting-down of forests on 
the climate and health of Mauritius." Still, in 1854, 
the island was resorted to by invalids from India as 
the <' pearl" of the Indian Ocean, it being then one 
mass of verdure. When the forests were cleared, 
to gain space for sugar cultivation, the rainfall dimin- 
ished even there ; the rivers dwindled down to mud- 
dy streams ; the water became stagnant in cracks, 
revices, and natural hollows, while the equable tem- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 51 

perature of the island entirely changed ; even drought 
was experienced in the midst of the ocean, and thun- 
der-showers were rarely any longer witnessed. The 
lagoons, marshes, and swamps along the seaboard 
were no longer filled with water, but gave off nox- 
ious gases ; while the river - waters became impure 
from various refuse. After a violent inundation, in 
February, 1865, followed by a period of complete dry- 
ness, fever, of a low type, set in, against which the 
remedies employed in ordinary febrile cases proved 
utterly valueless. From the waterless sides of the 
lagoons, pestilential malaria arose, exposed to which 
the. laborers fell on the field, and, in some instances, 
died within a few hours afterward. But scarcity of 
good food among the destitute classes, and inadequate 
sewage arrangement, predisposed also to the dread- 
ful eS'ect of the fever, at the time. As stated by my- 
self, on a former public occasion, marshes should 
either be fully drained or the means of continuing 
them submerged should not be withdrawn. Dr. 
Rogers very properly insists that the plateaux and 
highlands of Mauritius must be replanted, alone 
on sanitary reasons. The small island of Malta re- 
quires, at this moment, to make strenuous efibrt for 
wood culture, to render tillage further possible and 
the clime more tolerable. The once forest-covered 
hills, which bordered the rich garden country of Mur- 
cia, in Moorish times, are now masses of arid rocks ; 
while Spain, nowadays, is even helpless to obtain its 
very fuel, and thus all its technologic industries must 
languish. No wonder, then, if our here much-disre- 
garded Eucalypts are called there the trees of the 
future. 



52 FOREST CULTURE AND 

But I have, on this occasion, dwelt already long 
enough on the stern necessity of securing a due rela- 
tion of forest to territory, of woods to climate, of tim- 
ber to industries. These great questions have been 
discussed, by able men, thi'ough time long passed, in 
all countries of civilization. The details, moreover, 
of such discussions demand a special and fuller teach- 
ing, for which, perhaps, opportunities may yet arise 
in this hall. But to those who wish early to devote 
fuller attention to vital considerations of this kind, I 
would recommend the perusal of the admirable work 
of George P. Marsh (3Ian and Nature; or Physical 
Qeography, as modified by Human Action. London: 
1864). That author studied the scattered and largely 
foreign literature pertaining to this subject with sin- 
gular care, observed very many original facts, and 
argued on them with great ability. A smaller, still 
more recent publication [Disastrous Effects of the De- 
struction of Forest Trees in Wisconsin, by Lapham, 
Knapp, and Crocker, published in 1867) is also de- 
serving full attention, inasmuch as it brings before us 
the difficulties and losses which the destruction of the 
forests has already caused in one of the younger of the 
American States ; while, again, Indian experiences 
in regard to forests may be traced in the valuable vol- 
ume issued by Dr. Cleghorn [Forests of the Punjab and 
Western Himalaya ; Roor Kee, 1864). Some observa- 
tions of my own, applying to countries like North Af- 
rica, have been recorded two years ago in the JBulle- 
tin de la Sociele d' Agriculture d' Alger. 

One of the main objects, however, of my address 
this evening, is to show in what manner a well-or* 
ganized and yet inexpensive system of forest admin- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 53 

istration might chock the indiscriminate destruction 
of the woods, without, perhaps, lessening the rate of 
the present yield ; in what manner numerous latent 
industrial resources of our ranges might be speedily 
and successfully developed, and a higher revenue thus 
be raised by the state ; in what manner this increased 
income could be best employed, to maintain or enrich 
the forests, or to raise woods where naturally none 
existed ; and by what new means prosperous occupa- 
tion might be afforded to many a happy family in the 
still and salubrious sylvan recesses of this country. 

And here I would at once remark, that for any ad- 
ministrative organization to watch over our forest 
interests we must follow an independent path of our 
owu in this young country, because the systems of 
forest management adopted with so much advantage 
in Germany, France, and Scandinavia are here appli- 
cable only to a very limited extent. This must be at 
once apparent to any one who will reflect on the dis- 
parity which exists between our clime, our native 
tree vegetation, our present ratio of population and 
value of labor, as compared with similar conditions of 
the older and far more densely inhabited countries of 
middle and northern Europe, not to speak of the very 
much wider scope which, for the selection of trees for 
our future use, the isothermal zone of Victoria allows. 
On the latter subject our Acclimatization Society has 
recently published the views which I entertain in ref- 
erence to the many various trees eligible for the geo- 
graphic latitudes of a colony like ours.* Next I pro- 
ceed to give, though very briefly, only an outline of 
the special system of administration, which I would 

* Appendix to the Annual Report of the Vict. Acclimat. Sec, 1870-71. 
4 



54 FOREST CULTURE AND 

advise to be adopted in the first instance, as well for 
the supervision, enrichment, and utilization of our 
native forjsts as for creating also new ones. On vari- 
ous occasions I have alluded to such a plan of surveil- 
lance before. More recently, though only passingly, 
in a lecture delivered at this hall, I advocated the 
formation of local Forest Boards in the different dis- 
tricts of our colonial territory. Various considera- 
tions led me to recommend this system. The admin- 
istration, as an honorary one, would involve no direct 
expenditure to the State. It would bring to bear in 
each locality special watchfulness and local talent. 
In each district could readily be found a few inhabit- 
ants who not only possess some knowledge of tree- 
culture in general, but who, also, by their direct in- 
terest in the present and future welfare of the locality 
in which they live, in which they gained experiences, 
in which they hold property, and in which they rear- 
ed a farail^^, would be induced, as much for the sake 
of direct and lasting advantages as from patriotic 
motives, to devote the needful time for serving on a 
local Forest Board. But there are still other weighty 
advantages, which claim support for this proposition. 
Various tracts of the Victorian territory are — as might 
be imagined — very unlike in climate and geologic 
structure. Each locality sliows peculiar adaptabilities 
for special trees to be selected. One district can afford, 
by the possession of more extensive primeval forests, 
to be far more heavily taxed in its timber resources 
than another; one tract of country can produce remu- 
neratively certain trees, which it would be hopeless 
to attempt raising in anotlier locality. Some exten- 
sive areas have no forests at all, and in others they 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 65 

have all but succumbed already. Hence each Forest 
Board can best frame its own by-laws or local regula- 
tions, subject to the approval of ministerial authority ; 
each can best judge of its own particular requirements, 
not only for the present generation, but also of such 
as will be urgent at a time when the children and 
grand-children of the earlier colonists will have to 
form their judgment on the wisdom or shortcomings 
of their ancestors here at a time when the want of 
foresight may fall most crushingly on the vitality or 
progress of many an industry or even the whole pros- 
perity of the colony, or when, otherwise, the early 
operations of thoughtful local residents will prove to 
posterity an incalculable benefit. It will then become 
apparent whether the present colonists have done 
their duty to their descendants, and havebeen faith- 
ful to the future interests of their adopted country ; 
or whether they sunk all their ideas and efforts in 
temporary gain, regardless of all consequences. Each 
forest district, thus guarded by local administrators, 
will be able to produce a far larger income than now 
is raised from any of our wood areas ; while the re- 
moval of timber will be brought within more reason- 
able bounds, and the wants of the future no longer be 
disregarded. Means of disposal of the wood, differ- 
ent to the regulations now in force, would be adopted, 
to save, in places much denuded already of wood, the 
rest of the timber from complete destruction. Thus, 
for instance, trees might be sold by numbers at cer- 
tain sizes, with saving of the youthful trees ; or the 
wood might be removed by the square mile, with a 
view of replanting. The reckless ringing of trees 
(merely to obtaifi a little more grass) and stripping of 



56 FOREST CULTURE AND 

bark would be brought within stringent laws, and 
many other losses be obviated. 

A gentleman at Hillesley counts, as late as this 
very month, five splendid trees on an acre, cut down 
by the splitters, while only about one tenth of the 
wood is used; nine tenths being left to be swept away, 
sooner or later, by bush-fires. This improvidence goes 
on within a few hours' drive from Melbourne. The 
stately sea - coast Banksias (Banksia integrifolia), so 
rare near. Melbourne, and hardly occurring further 
westward, have been nearly exterminated within this 
month, as near to us as Brighton. On all this, local 
forest surveillance can form far the best opinion. 
Each Board should have its cultivator, who, simul- 
taneously, could perform the duties of forest-ranger. 
A few unprovided orphan boys might be occupied in 
the simple nursery or planting work for the forests. 
The officer intrusted with forest duties on behalf of 
the Government might aid, by frequent visits to each 
forest district, the various Boards with much advice. 
The expenditure for such an organization in each 
instance would be most moderate, would be product- 
ive already of early remunerative gain, and cause 
large and immediate savings. No statesman, I feel 
assured, would wish to impoverish our woods at the 
expense of the next generation, just as little as any 
legislator would hesitate to re- vote annually, for each 
forest administration, at least a portion of the revenue 
raised from the woods under its control. A sound 
economy of the State will not expect from a forest in 
populous localities any more than to devote its means 
for self-support. One of the first duties devolving on 
any forest department would undoubtedly be to cause 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 57 

in each district some fertile, slieltered valleys, readily 
accessible to good lines of traffic, to be selected, where, 
from springs or rivulets, water could be obtained for 
inexpensive irrigation, in order to reserve such spots 
for forest nurseries before they are all alienated from 
the Crown. The transit of the millions of seedlings 
needed for forest plantations, from remote spots, would 
not only be one of enormous and unnecessary expend- 
iture, but, in the many instances of evergreen and 
even some deciduous trees, it would be next to impos- 
sible to convey living plants for long distances. The 
union of Forest Boards to Road Boards or Shire Coun- 
cils I regard inadvisable, because their scope of action 
is so different. The predilections of a member of a 
municipality will often be in building operations and 
kindred objects, while for culture processes he may 
have neither inclination nor experience. It is never 
wise to burden too heavy responsibilities on a few 
honorary administrators, whose leisure in this youth- 
ful country, where so much work is yet under the 
first or early process of creating, is almost sure to be 
but limited. 

But there are instances in which — as, indeed, a 
thoughtful legislator has suggested — the Mining 
Boards might exercise, in their vicinity, supervision 
also over the woods. On many professional ques- 
tions, such as the renovation of forests, the best util- 
ization of their products, the increase of their riches, 
I would, myself, very gladly afford advice, and thus 
maintain a consulting position to the Forest Boards ; 
for, need I add, it has ever been my aim to serve, as 
far as it was within my means, the best interests of 
my fellow-colonists ; and while official responsibility 



58 FOREST CULTURE AND 

rests on me in this direction, I would wish to meet it 
in such a way that those who will live after us shall 
never be able to tax me with blindness to any impor- 
tant interest of our colony, so far as such were intrust- 
ed to my charge. But, then, the views of a profes- 
sional ofRcer should be received with that considera- 
tion, and be seconded with that support, to which 
they have fair claim. 

I pass the subject of the incalculable value of the 
native woods, such as we still possess in our own for- 
ests, whether viewed in their relation to arts or as 
mercantile export commodities. It is a matter far 
too large to dwell on, even cursorily, on this occasion. 
Were I to 'enumerate all the uses already practically 
known of our native trees, I would have to compile 
a goodly volume, even were I silent on the still far 
ampler subject of the introduction of the thousands 
of different foreign trees which I should like to see 
here for the use of future artisans and those who are 
to benefit by their services. A work bearing on the 
nature of the forest - trees of India, by Dr. Balfour, 
was kindly placed in my hands by Col. Sankey, whose 
stay among us we at present (22d June, 1871) enjoy 
for advice on our water-works. Major Beddome, of 
Madras, issues a kindred illustrated work. 

I may, however, be allowed to point to the enor- 
mous consumption of indigenous wood in some locali- 
ties, as this expenditure is utterly out of all proportion 
to the existing supply or its present natural renova- 
tion. This question presents itself all the more grave- 
ly, as no rich coal - seams are as yet discovered, by 
which the fuel-supply could be augmented from short 
distances, at a moderate price, We have also to be 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 59 

cognizant that we cannot think of coal-fields as inex- 
haustible, even in the richest coal countries ; and, 
although it is to be hoped that the day is very distant 
when the cheap results of colliery work will be marred 
by the much - increasing depth of the coal mines, 
or their partial exhaustion, yet we cannot altogether 
discard the idea that, so far as coals are concerned, 
we are working on a capital, however large it may 
be, without ever adding to it. In Victoria, we can 
neither augment the supply of burning material by 
peat, such as is so extensively utilized for fuel in the 
countries of the North, except we bring a very similar 
and equally useful peat from the distant and rug- 
ged heights of our Alpine mountains. 

Although science has promised us prophetically 
other sources for applied heat — and I may add, motive 
power — in gases not yet within our technic reach 
or of universal application, we have, nevertheless,' to 
deal with the stern realities of the day until new sci- 
entific achievements in this direction shall have been 
accomplished. At best, and looking ever so hopefully 
forward to the successes of the future, we cannot sub- 
stitute in an endless array of purposes air or coal for 
the ever- wanted living wood, even if all that concerns 
climate and health could be left out of our contempla- 
tion. As an instance, then, of our present consump- 
tion, or almost immediate requirements of wood, I 
would like to quote one or two examples. 

The able Engineer - in - chief of the Railway De- 
partment — T. Higinbotham, Esq. — has obligingly 
supplied me with the following data in reference to 
the timber at present consumed for the Government 
railway lines. This gentleman explains also what will 



60 FOREST CULTURE AND 

most likely be needed within the next few years for 
this purpose. 

'<The number of sleepers which are used annually 
on the existing lines of railway, to replace decayed 
sleepers, is about forty thousand ; and there can be no 
doubt that renewals at this rate at least must be con- 
tinued for many years to come. Each sleeper con- 
tains three and one eighth cubic feet of timber, and 
for renewals Ked Gum timber is used exclusively, the 
principal supplies being obtained from the Murray 
Biver. 

'< The length of fencing, which is renewed annually 
on the existing lines, may be taken at eighteen miles, 
and the quantity of timber in a mile of fencing is about 
three thousand cubic feet ; the timber used in renew- 
ing fencing is Messmate, Peppermint, and Stringy- 
bark, and the durability of these timbers when used 
for fencing may be taken at ten years. 

''There are at present nearly one hundred and 
twenty miles of new railway in course of construction, 
and sixty miles more will be undertaken before the 
close of this year. The new line of railway, the 
North-eastern, will be one hundred and eighty-one 
miles long, and for each mile two thousand sleepers 
are required, which at three and one eighth cubic feet 
per sleeper gives six thousand two hundred and fifty 
cubic feet per mile ; or, for the whole length of one 
hundred and eighty-one miles, one million one hundred 
and thirty-one thousand two hundred and fifty cubic 
feet will be required for sleepers. The timber to be 
used in these sleepers will be Red Gum, Iron-bark, or 
Box. I have no actual experience of the durability 
of these timbers when used for sleepers; but I believe 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 61 

that it will be quite safe to reckon on their lasting for 
eighteen years. The ordinary Gums, when used for 
sleepers, will not last more than half that time. 

''The quantity of timber required for fencing the 
North-eastern railway will be one million eighty-six 
thousand cubic feet. The fence-posts will be of Red 
Gum, Iron-bark, Blue Gum, or Box, and the rails of 
Stringy-bark. I think that a fence of these materials 
will last for eighteen years. As to projected railways, 
it seems to be probable that on the average from thir. 
ty to forty miles will be made for the next ten years, 
in addition to the North-eastern railway already in 
progress." 

I am further told, by a gentleman conversant with 
our railway affairs, that the engines on the present 
Government line use about three thousand tons of 
wood a year, while about eight hundred tons more 
are consumed on the stations. The Government line 
requires one hundred and fifty thousand Blackwood 
keys annually. On inquiry, I have also learned that 
the breakwater at Williamstown will take four hun- 
dred piles, equal to eighteen thousand cubic feet, and 
for the superstructure of the piers ten thousand cubic 
feet more. The Melbourne Gas-works required, in 
1870, not less than forty thousand superficial feet of 
Red Gum timber. The quantity of Red Gum wood 
required for these and other jjurposes cannot be in- 
creased by supplies from Tasmania, as the tree does 
not exist there. Again : the true Blue Gum-tree 
does not naturally occur beyond Victoria and Tasma- 
nia. If complete wood statistics could be collected, 
both of our daily requirements In town, on land, and 
on sea, and statistics also as to what really sound and 



62 FOREST CULTURE AND 

straight timber is still available, some serious realities 
would be brought before us. 

At Ballarat, Creswick, Beechworth, Yackandandah, 
Sandhurst, Heathcote, Maryborough, Avoca, Castle- 
maine, Fryer's Creek, and Ararat, some of the tim- 
ber for the mines has to be brought already from dis- 
tances as remote as ten to sixteen miles, according to 
returns of the Mining Surveyor, kindly furnished by 
Mr. B,. Brough Smyth. At Pleasant Creek the min- 
ers have to go every year a mile further for their 
wood. 

I quote the following important statement from Mr. 
R. B. Smyth's Mineral Statistics of Victoria for 1870 : 

Table showing approximately the Quantity and Cost of Timber 
consumed annually for Mining Purposes in the several Mining 
Districts, from returns made by the Mining Surveyors and 
Registrars. 

f Firewood, etc 320,G01 tons. "1 £ b. d. 

WATTiRAT J Props and cap-pieces.... l.fiSO, 555 pes. ! 203 024 4 7 

BALLABAT i Laths and slabs 4,274,798 pes. ?" ^""^."■«* * ' 

[ Sawn timber 5,772,110 feet. J 

f Firewood, etc 45,600 tons. ^ 

BEECHWOBTH... ^ P^0P«'^'^^'=fP-P*^<=^«---- H^^^IL?^'- \ 33,639 17 4 
' Laths and slabs 506,050 pes. f 



Sawn timber 706,200 feet. J 

f Firewood, etc 129,750 tons. "1 

e „ ,™„^ I Props and cap-pieces 290,300 pes. i qt -ki a a 

Sandhubst -{ Laths and slabs. 1,174,500 pes [ 91.551 8 4 

i Sawn lumber 614,800 feet. J 

r Firewood , etc 98,373 tons. ] 

■•» ^„„„ I Props and cap-pieces 198,071 pes. I -o z.,™ , q 

Maryborough. \ ^aths and slabs 809,182 pes. f ^^•'^^^ * ^ 

I. Sawn timber 786,987 feet. J 



Firewood, etc 68 ,190 tons. 



/^ „.,..v,„ Props and cap-pieces 142,791 pes. I 90=01 -iA k 

Castlemaine... ^ j^^^gg^^^^^j^^ 109,143 pes. \ ^^'^^^ ^* ^ 

y Sawn timber 450,100 feet. J 

[ Firewood, etc 91,360 tons. 1 

»„.«..» J Props and cap-pieces 19,302 pes. I 0003, a ■,, 

AiiABAT ^ Laths and slabs 70,021 pes. f ^'^•^''^ " " 

[ Sawn timber 250,000 feet. ) 

f Firewood, etc 12,744tons. I 

„ - I Props and cap-pieces 37,656 pes. i n rna ± -j 

GipraLAND.... ^ L^ti^g^n^gl^';,^ 18.802 pes. ^ ^.oOS 4 3 

[ Sawn timber 202,581 feet. J 

ICoBt £444,886 14 1 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 63 

As a further evidence of the imperative necessity 
of finding wood by a mode different to the present 
means of obtaining- it I translate and condense a por- 
tion of a letter from an accomplished mining engi- 
neer at Clunes (Wolfgang Mueller, Esq.), a spot which 
once boasted of forest scenery : The fuel required 
for the steam - engines alone at the mines of Clunes 
amounts, at the present rate of working, to not less 
than one million three hundred and eight thousand 
cubic feet annually. The nearest forest is ten miles dis- 
tant ; the price per cord ( of one hundred and twenty- 
eight cubic feet) is 27s. The cost of transit of the above 
engine-fuel amounts alone to, approximately, £10,000 
pro anno ; the whole expenditure being about £15,000. 
The round wood, for subterranean use in the mines of 
Clunes, now annually comes to one hundred and sixty 
thousand running feet, {\ta value of £2,400 ; and this 
round wood cannot now be obtained nearer than from 
twenty to twenty - five miles. The sawn and split 
timber for the Clunes mines has to be carried quite 
as far, adding about £700 to the wood expenses for 
these mines, the total being probably not less than 
£20,000 annually ! No allowance is, however, made 
in these calculations for the domestic fuel of the min- 
ers. The price of wood is trebled already by cart- 
age at that spot. 

No natural local upgrowth, even if not destroyed by 
fire or traffic, I am confident can come up to this rate 
of consumption ; and it is evident that annually the 
price for wood at these mining works must increase ; 
for many mine this may become a question alto- 
gether as to the possibility of its further remunera- 
tive working. The mining operations, moreover, are 



64 FOREST CULTURE AND 

generally at a yearly increase, through new gold dis- 
coveries in the district spoken of, and elsewhere. 
Although, on the Clunes mines, the price of wood has 
not materially risen during the last six years, it must 
be borne in mind that remuneration of labor has sunk, 
indicating, in reality, a considerable increase in the 
price of the fuel. New railway lines may, certainly, 
bring wood, for a time, at moderate prices, to the mi- 
ners ; but this measure copes not with the real diffi- 
culty of the wood question, but only defers it, as such 
sources of supply will also become exhausted, while 
carriage, from an indefinite distance, will become a 
financial impossibility. The present price of coal, at 
Clunes, is far too high to allow it to be substituted for 
wood. Now let us pass on to still other considerations 
bearing on this question. It so happens that the de- 
crease of timber in our colonies is hastened by other 
agencies than those of sacrifice for utilitarian supply. 
Irrespective of the ordinary causes by which, in many 
countries, the virgin forests became devastated, there 
are, additionally, others which operate in our colony 
to augment the extensive destruction of woods. The 
miner ignites the underwood, with a view of uncover- 
ing any quartz-reefs or tracing mineral riches of other 
kinds. Although he desires only to force thus his way 
through a limited space of scrub, or uncover, for inspec- 
tion, a small extent of ground, he really sets, some- 
times, the whole forest on fire, unchaining the furies of 
the fiery element, which, in its ruinous and rapid prog- 
ress, consumes innumerable stately trees, requiring the 
growth of one or even several centuries to attain their 
spacious dimensions. The burning trees, a prey of the 
flames, carry with them many others in their fall j 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 65 

others become partially scorched, and linger gradu- 
ally to decay ; others become at least so far impaired 
as to offer no longer a sound or superior timber. Very 
aged Eucalyptus - trees are almost always suffering 
already from natural decay in the central portions of 
the stem. It is far from me to wish to impede the 
operations and progress of the miners, to whose intel- 
ligence and hard-working activity this country owes 
so much ; but the advantages of gold-mining in our 
ranges may sometimes be too dearly bought at the 
expense of very extensive forest-destruction, with all 
the evils concomitant to it, or sure to follow it. Many 
other causes — such as the carelessness of travelers — 
set also frequently portions of the forest on fire, while 
the control over the devastation is lost. 

The answer to remonstrances amounts usually to 
an opinion that more wood is springing up again than 
has been destroyed ; but let us ask, how long will it 
be until the suckers, saplings, or seedlings, which, 
undoubtedly, in many instances, occupy the burned 
ground, forming perhaps impenetrable thickets, until 
they will really have advanced to the size of timber- 
trees, fit for the saw - mill ? In other localities, less 
densely wooded, where the trees were so dispersed 
as to give to the natural scenery, before it was dis- 
turbed, a park - like appearance, in such localities, 
which impressed on many of the original Australian 
landscapes so much peculiarity, the growth of bushy 
plants becomes, as a rule, by occupation of the ground, 
quickly destroyed ; the shelter and shade, which kept 
the mostly rather horizontal roots of the Eucalj^ptus 
trees cool and moist, become largely withdrawn ; the 
pendent leaves and lax or distant ramifications of the 



66 FOREST CULTURE AND 

tree itself giving but partial shade. The soil, more- 
over, remains no longer porous and permeable to 
moisture — it gets hardened, bare and consolidated by 
traffic and heat ; the necessary moisture is wanting 
to keep the bark pliable, and to maintain the circula- 
tion of the sap active or normal ; bark and wood are 
getting fissured and partly lifelesss ; and now places 
of seclusion, as well as a wood fit for their ready at- 
tack, are given to numerous kinds of coleopterous and 
other insects, which, by bo^-ing the ligneous tissue, are 
sure to complete the destruction of the trees. Pict- 
ures of absolute misery of this kind may be noticed 
around our city in all directions. I have succeeded 
in saving many a venerable tree on the ground under 
my control, and in arresting the incipient decay by 
merely surrounding the base of the stem with earth 
turfed over, serving as seats ; or by removing the end- 
less quantity of mistletoe, which sucks the life -sap 
out of the branches, the invader perishing with its 
victim, there being no longer a multitude of native 
birds in populous localities to devour the mistle-berries. 
In many low localities, again, the ground, indurat- 
ed by trafl[ic, collects a superabundance of moisture, 
which becomes stagnant, and detrimental to the trees 
of such spots. Various other peculiar causes tend to 
the decay of our trees : to allude to all is beyond our 
present object. 

How to provide, therefore, in time, the wood 
necessary for our mines, railways, buildings, fences, 
and as well as for the ordinary domestic and other 
purposes, becomes a question which from year to year 
presses with increased urgency on our attention, the 
consideration of which we have already far too long; 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 67 

deferred. It may certainly be argued that in the 
eastern portion and some of the southern parts of the 
Victorian territory abundance of forests still exist -r- 
enough to supply all wants for many years to come. 
This is perfectly true in the abstract ; but how does 
this argument apply, when we well know that such 
timber occurs in secluded places, mostly on high and 
broken ranges, without roads. And even if the latter 
were constructed — which certainly will be required 
gradually — at what price can such timber bo conveyed 
to the required distance ? Suppose, however, that 
all these difficulties had been overcome, whence are 
we to obtain the deals of northern Pines, the boards 
of the Red Cedar, and the almost endless kinds of 
other woods which future artisans will require ? For, 
assuredly, neither Europe nor North America can 
sustain the heavy call on their indigenous and even 
planted forests for an indefinite period to come. Trop- 
ical woods might for a time be brought from the jun- 
gles of three continents, but certainly not at a small 
cost. Besides, tropical trees, as a rule, are not gre- 
garious ; we cannot judge beforehand, in every in- 
stance, of their durability and other qualities ; we 
cannot recognize their extraordinary variety of sorts 
specifically from mere inspection of the logs, and we 
should find ourselves soon surrounded by endless dif- 
ficulties and perplexities were we to depend on such 
resources alone. Would it not be far wiser timely to 
create independent resources of our own, for which 
we have really such great facility ? With equal ear- 
nestness another aspect of the timber question, as con- 
cerning our national economy, forces itself on our 
reflection. The inhabitable space of the globe is not 



68 FOREST CULTURE AND 

likely to increase, except through forces which would 
initiate a new organic creation, or, at all events, bring 
the present phase in the world's history to a close ; 
but while the area of land does not increase, mankind, 
in spite of deadly plagues, of the horrors of warfare, 
and of unaccountable oppressions and miseries, which 
more extended education and the highest standard 
of morals can only reduce or subdue — mankind, in 
spite of all this, increases numerically so rapidly that 
before long more space must be gained for its very 
existence. Where can we look for the needful space ? 
Is it in the tropic zones, with their humid heat and 
depressing action on our energies ? Or is it in the 
frigid zone, which sustains but a limited number of 
forms of organism ? Or is it rather in the temperate 
and particularly our warm temperate zone, that we 
have to offer the means of subsistence to our fellow- 
men, closely located as they in future must be ? But 
this formation of dense and at the same time also 
thriving settlements, how is it to be carried out, 
unless, indeed, we place not merely our soil at the 
disposal of our coming brethren, but offer with this 
soil also the indispensable requisite of a vigorous 
industrial life, among which requisites the easy and 
inexpensive access to a sufiBciency of wood stands 
well-nigh foremost. 

I may be met with the reply that the singular 
rapidity of the growth of Australian trees is such as 
to bring within the scope of each generation all that 
is required, as far as wood is concerned ; and as a 
corollary it would follow that each generation should 
take advantage of the facility thus brought locally 
within its reach. I can assure this audience that 



EUCALYPTUS TKEES. 69 

enlightened nations abroad do far more than this, and 
would not rest satisfied with the greater facilities here 
enjoyed ; they provide, with keen forethought and 
high appreciation of their duty for their followers, that 
beforehand which cannot be called forth at any time 
at will. If we examine this part of the question 
more closely, we shall find much to think about — 
much to act upon. Not even all our Eucalypts are of 
rapid growth ; they, further, belong to a tribe of trees 
with a hard kind of wood, which, though so valuable 
for a multitude of purposes, cannot supply all that 
the needs of life daily demand from us for our indus- 
trial work. 

The quick - growing Eucalypts, among which the 
Blue Gum-tree of this colony and Tasmania stands 
pre-eminent, are comparatively few in number, nor 
are these few all of gigantic size. They are, more- 
over, restricted in their natural occurrence to limited 
tracts of country, from which they must be estab- 
lished by the hand of man in other soil for the neces- 
sities of other communities — for the gratitude of other 
populations. Then, again, the Pines of foreign lands, 
often impressing a splendor on their landscapes, must 
be brought to our shores — to our Alps — with an inten- 
tion of utilizing every square mile of ground, how- 
ever unpromising in its sterility ; for, after all, that 
square mile represents a portion, albeit so small, of 
the land-surface of the globe. Look at the picture 
on this wall ; see how the Norway Spruce (which 
gives us so much of our deals and tar) insinuates its 
massive roots through the fissures of disintegrating 
rocks, or, failing to penetrate the stony structure, 
sends its trailing roots over the surface and down the 



70 FOREST CULTURE AND 

sides of the barest rocks until they have found a 
genial soil, however scanty, on the edge of a preci- 
pice. Nature — ever active and laborious, ever wise 
and beneficent — allows the tree thus to live, thus to 
convert the solid bowlders finally into soil, and all the 
time adds unceasingly to the treasures of the domin- 
ions of man. But just as time, with its measured 
terms in fleet course, passes irresistably onward and 
irrevocably away, so also have we to await the ap- 
proaching time, which all our wishes cannot accel- 
erate in its unalterable measure. 

" Onward its course the present keeps, 
Onward the constant current sweeps, 

Till life is done ; 
And did we judge of time aright, 
The past and future in their flight 

Would be as one. 

Let no one fondly dream again 
That hope and all her shadow-train 

Will not decay ; 
Fleeting as were the dreams of old, 
Remembered like a tale that 's told ; 
They pass away." 

LoNOFELLOW [troia " Manrique") . 

We have, therefore, to await with patience these 
measured terms before the child in its youthful impet- 
uosity can reach the age of its highest hopes and sup- 
posed glory — but, alas! leaving often a far happier 
phase behind ; or before a tree, from its youthful 
grace, can have advanced to sturdy strength or lofty 
height, to fulfill also its destiny and offer us its gifts. 
We cannot call forth age at pleasure ; at best there is 
involved a lapse of years before a timber-tree can 
yield a plank, a beam, or even as much as a solid 
post. 

J have endeavored to arrive at some idea of the 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 71 

real age of the larger trees, which are sinking daily 
under our axes, often sacrificed unnecessarily. On 
this occasion, as an apt one, I may, then, explain 
that a period of a quarter or even half a century must 
elapse before a solid plank, hardened by age, can be 
obtained from even a rapid-growing Eucalyptus-tree. 
It is estimated to require twenty to twenty-five years 
before even a sleeper of Blue Gum-wood can be obtain- 
ed from a tree planted in ordinary soil ; and that 
double the time will elapse before a sown tree of the 
still more durable Red Gum Eucalyptus will furnish 
sleepers, such as hitherto have been in use for our 
railway works. But a supply of fuel from these trees 
may be obtained much earlier. Mr. Adam Anderson, 
a timber merchant of this city, concurs in this esti- 
mate. 

Yet for forest operations we enjoy, here advantages 
of two-fold kind, for which in middle Europe we are 
justly envied. We can disseminate quickly-growing 
Eucalyptus-trees in the most arid districts ; we can 
add to them, as a first shelter, many of the native 
Casuarinas and Acacias, and thus gain cover for less 
hardy trees of other countries. On the other hand, 
we find in the moist and rich valleys of our ranges a 
vast extent of space, where, under the mild influence 
of the clime, sub-tropic trees could be reared million- 
fold ; where, for instance, whole forests of the Red 
Cedar might be originated. Besides, we do not stand 
at any disadvantage if we want to raise a belt of sea- 
coast Pines all along the shores, or if we wish to rear 
the Norway Spruce, or Silver Fir, or Larch, or Wey- 
mouth Fir, or the Douglas Pine, or any of the Pitch- 
pines of North America J because we c^n call forth, if 



72 FOREST CULTURE AND 

we like, whole forests of them on sub-alpine heights, 
never yet thus utilized. 

Suppose we reckon that one hundred forest -trees 
would be required to be planted on an acre, allowing 
for periodic thinning out ; and assuming that for cli- 
matic and hygienic considerations, as well as for the 
maintenance of wood supply, we should require finally 
one fourth of our Victorian territory kept as a forest- 
area, we would expect to possess one billion five hun- 
dred and sixty-eight million trees, and to provide for 
their timely restoration in proportion to their removal 
or natural loss. 

Most of us are lulled into security by seeing that 
we receive, as yet, our foreign woods in the course of 
ordinary traffic, and we are not easily inclined to think 
that the supply may cease suddenly, or be obtainable 
only at an exorbitant expense. Even in the United 
States of America there are places where the price of 
fuel and timber has already risen fourfold. We are 
told that recently, in the States of Wisconsin and 
Michigan alone, during one single year, two million 
of Pine-trees were cut for lumber ; and it is estimated 
that at the present rate of destruction no timber-trees 
will be left in those States after fifty years, while it 
will take a century to replace them, if even this be 
possible. Quebec exported, in 1860, not less than sev- 
enty million cubic feet of squared or sawn timber, 
equal to about a million tons of wood — a large share 
yielded by the Weymouth Pine (Pinus strobus) — not 
taking into account the current local consumption. 
This tree, yielding the white American Pine-wood, 
requires fully sixty years of growth before it can be 
sawn into timber of any good size. During the first 



ElTCALYPTUS TREES. 73 

two years of the recent civil war in North America, 
twenty - eight thousand AValnut - trees were felled to 
supply one single European factory with the material 
for gun-stocks, demanded for this fratricidal war. Is 
it not right to reflect timely on the vast extensions of 
railroads, manufactures, mines, ship -building, dwell- 
ings, and so forth, and then to ask. Where is the 
wood -supply to come from ? The requirements in 
this direction must necessarily rise with the increase 
of the population and the augmented refinements of 
civilization, yet the area of supply we see constantly 
decreasing. The loss on wheat crops during four of 
the more recent years in the State of Michigan alone, 
for want of shelter against cutting winds, was esti- 
mated at £5,000,000, and this is regarded as the mere 
sequence of the removal of the forests, and not trace- 
able to exhaustive culture. Cereal crops and vines 
were destroyed in many parts of South Europe, also 
through the complete want of shelter. 

" More bleak to view the hiUs at length recede, 
Aud leas luxuriant, smoother vales extend; 
Immense horizon bounded plains succeed- 
Far as the eye discerns, without an end." 

Byron. 

The Commissioner of the Land Office of the Unit- 
ed States (Report for 1868) considers the Live Oak 
(Quercus virens) — one of the best for ship-building — 
nearly exterminated for all practical purposes, at least 
as far as native forests are concerned ; while the Wal- 
nut timber of North America, so much prized for cabi- 
net-work, has well-nigh shared the same fate. The 
transit of Walnut - wood from Missouri to New York 
renders it already nearly as expensive as Mahogany, 
whereas the latter has become likewise in West India 



74 FOREST CULTURE AND 

and Central America an article of great scarcity, and, 
therefore, this important tree should be copiously 
planted in the forests of tropical Australia. In the 
earlier part of this century the supply of Saul timber 
of Lower India (Shorea robusta) was thought inex- 
haustible; but now, already, this heavy and durable 
wood is hardly any longer procurable for ship-build- 
ing and engineering work, for which it is so much 
sought. The axes of the woodmen will also soon make 
such an inroad into the comparatively limited Yarrah 
forests of West Australia that also this timber, which 
for salt-water works is almost incomparable, will cease 
to be available long before a new and sufficient supply 
can be raised by regular culture. 

The Land Commissioner of the United States fur- 
ther reports, in 1868, that the frequent excessive 
droughts, and the occasional destructive inundations 
experienced a quarter of a century ago in Iowa, Kan- 
sas, and Nebraska, have much diminished since the 
regular settlement brought tree plantations and other 
cultures into the extensive treeless prairies. Iowa 
planted, in 1867, about seventy - six square miles of 
forest, and one thousand eight hundred and eighty 
four miles length of hedges. On the other hand, it is 
estimated already, in 1864, by Mr. P. T. Thomas, of 
New York, that the whole regions east of the Missis- 
sippi would be stripped of all really useful timber with- 
in twenty or thirty years ; while even for fuel great 
inroads are constantly made into the American for- 
ests, coal not being everywhere accessible in the States. 
The Hon. T. M. Edmonds (Report of the Department 
of Agriculture of U. S. for 1868) foresees the exhaus- 
tion of the timber resources of the United States in 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 75. 

half a century, under existing circumstances, whereas 
by that time the demand will be quadrupled. Mr. 
Simraonds calculates the importation of wood into 
France during 1865 at 154,000,000 francs, or about 
£6,000,000, the ratio of import being at an increase, 
notwithstanding that the forest area of that empire 
was reduced, within a century, to one half — namely, 
from one third, in the latter part of the last century — • 
to hardly more than one sixth now. But if the popu- 
lation of Middle Europe consumed proportionately as 
much native wood as the inhabitants of the United 
States, then, in less than half a century, no forest 
whatever would be left in Europe. These conclu- 
sions are borne out by the U. S. Commissioner of 
Lands, the Hon. Jos. S. Wilson. In the States east 
of the Mississippi, six billion cubic feet of wood were 
consumed for timber and fuel in 1860, at a time when 
no war laid hand on the forests. Hence, one million 
of acres of forest-land must be cleared, in the Eastern 
States of the Union, to find the wood for a years' local 
requirements. The shipment of lumber, in one of the 
latter years, from Chicago, was one billion four hun- 
dred million cubic feet, besides two hundred and sev- 
teen million laths, and nine hundred and twenty-eight 
million shingles. In 1866, the products of the Cali- 
fornia lumber trade were one hundred and ninety 
million of cubic feet, and thirty-eight million shingles ; 
in 1867, about two hundred million cubic feet. Que- 
bec exports about one million of cubic feet since a long 
period, annually, irrespective of home consumption. 
In the Pacific States exists only a supply adequate to 
the prospective wants of their people. The States 
west of the Mississippi import already timber that 



76 FOREST CULTURE AND 

formerly existed in tlieir own native forests. Like- 
wise so in Nortli America an enormous lot of trees is 
destroyed by girdling and subsequent burning, for 
clearing agricultural lands or pastoral runs. Tlius, in 
the earlier part of the next century, every natural for- 
est east of the Mississippi will have disappeared, if, 
with an increasing population, the same rate of con- 
sumption is going on. For the States west of the great 
river, in which forest-land is much less extensive, the 
prospects are still more alarming. Hence, Austmlia 
cannot indifferently look forward for soft-wood from 
these places. 

To give some idea how long a time will elapse before 
actual timber, not merely firewood, is obtained from 
planted trees, I subjoin a brief list of the more com- 
mon Middle European forest trees, together with notes 
of their age when eligible for various timber purposes : 

Beech 60-110 years. 

Hornbeam 70-100 " 

Oak 70-120 " 

Alder 30-80 " 

Birch 40-70 " 

Silver Fir 60-150 " 

Norway Spruce 60-150 " 

Scotch Fir 30-60 " 

Larch 30-80 "* 

That, however, in our Winterless zone, such of 
these trees as will endure a warmer clime would 
advance with more quickness to maturity must be 

* It should be remembered that most of our forest ranges are naturally 
devoid of Pine-wood, only one species of Callitris occurring in a few limited 
mountain districts, while our second Callitris is a desert species. Without 
coniferous trees of our own we shall finally experience difficulty of obtain- 
ing the required supply of deals, pitch, turpentine, and pine-resin. Doubt- 
Ihss, for many wood-structureg now iron is substituted, but even a ship or 
a house cannot be built entirely of iron, and the very production of the iron 
is dependent on fuel. In the absence of coal, the use of iron, involving 
here au expenditure for heavy freight, must necessarily be limited. 



EUCALYPTUS TIW^ES. 77 

readily manifest. The accurate Customs returns for 
the last year show an importation of foreign woods to 
the value of £223,769 ; there was scarcely any export. 
This very month the imported building- wood sent to 
Sandhurst alone has cost £58,000. Some countries 
have not been altogether unmindful of the conserva- 
tion of their forests. Germany, already much devas- 
tated at the time of the Romans, received its first for- 
est laws as far back as the reign of Charlemagne — 
indeed, with the commencement of agriculture and 
the settling of the nomadic hunter on fixed habita- 
tions. The forests thus discontinued to be common 
property, and in the fourteenth century commenced 
already a forest economy. Full legislation, regular 
management and actual cultivation of trees on an 
extensive scale, date back one hundred and fifty 
years. Venice formed its forest laws already in the 
fifteenth century. Although the desire for ample 
hunting- territory gave a great impulse to the restric- 
tions placed on the encroachment of the Middle Eu- 
ropean forests, this at the same time saved them to 
the country. 

Within the operations of wood culture may also be 
included that of subduing drift-sand, and solidifying 
the latter finally by plantations. For this purpose can 
be chosen the Haleppo Pine, Cluster Pine, Scotch Fir, 
or our own less arboreous so-called seashore Tea-trees 
(Melaleuca parviflora and Leptospermum Isevigatum), 
further the drooping She-oak (Casuarina quadrivalvis), 
the coast Honeysuckle (Banksia iutegrifolia), and also 
our desert cypress, or so-called Murray Pine. As not 
only in close vicinity to our fine city one wilderness 
of shifting sand exists, but as also in other places of 



78 i'OREST CULTURE AND 

our shores the sand is invading villages, towns, and, 
perhaps, harbors, and as, moreover, many a desert 
spot inland may be reclaimed, I would remark that, 
to arrest the w\aves of the sand, some wickerwork or 
cover of brush is needed on the storm side. Large 
seaweeds help to form such covering. Sods of Me- 
serabryanthemum, to which the unpoetic name of 
"Pigfaces" is here given, and which abounds on our 
coast, should copiously be scattered over the sand- 
ridges ; wild cabbage, celery, sea-kale, samphire. New 
Zealand spinach (Tetragonia), chamomile, and various 
clovers and bloom plants should be sown, and creep- 
ing sand-grass (Festuca litoralis, Triticum junceum, 
Buflfalo-grass, Agrostis stolonifera), etc., should be 
planted, particulary, also, sand-sedges and sand-rush- 
es, among the best of which are Carex arenaria, and 
here the Sword Rush ( Lepidosperma gladiatum ). 
Psoralea pinnata and Rhus typhinum, Prunus mari- 
tima (the Canadian sea-coast plum), Ailanthus gland- 
ulosa, proved also valuable in this respect. As eligi- 
ble, I may add, also, the native couch-grass (Cynodon 
Dactylon), the South African Ehrharta gigantea, the 
European Psamma arenaria, Elymus arenarius ( or 
Lyme), even the Live-oak (Quercus virens) ; as also 
another American Oak (Quercus obtusiloba), and the 
Turkey Oak (Quercus cerris), and, perhaps. Poplars, 
some Willows, and, among firs, the Pinus insignis, 
Pinus edulis, P. rigida, and P. Australis. The com- 
mon Brake Fern helps also much to conquer the sand. 
The New Zealand flax covers coast - sand naturally, 
within the very exposure of the spray.* It is need- 

" Dr. Jam. Hector calculated that in New Zealand an acre of good flax 
land contained about one hundred thousand leaves of the Phormium tenax, 
and yields about ten tons weight of dried leaves ; or, if only the outer leaves 
are taken, four tons. The yield of clean fiber is about twenty-three one 
hundredths of the green leaf. 



EUCALYPTUS- TREES. 79 

less to remark that exclusion of traffic from the sand 
is imperative, as also security against ingress of goats 
and domestic animals of any kind, otherwise the ef- 
fort is hopeless. Fencing of the area and stringent 
municipal laws will make, however, any operations 
of this kind, even without great expense, a success, 
as, in consequences of my advice, has been shown 
at Queenscliff. Wood - culture on drift - sand carries 
with it also the recommendation of providing the 
needful belt of shelter which each coast should pos- 
sess. There are a few ofher Pines — for instance, Pi- 
nus Taeda, the Loblolly Pine of North America, and 
several other trees which grow fast in sand, whenever 
it is no longer moving ; they endure the sea-storms, 
gradually consolidate the soil, and render it, in course 
of time, arable. In South Africa, some Protese and 
Leucospermums, the Virgilia, also Myrica, grow in 
coast-sand. All these planting operations must be 
performed very early, and in the cool season. The 
grasses and herbs must precede the pines and other 
trees. Technic industries will gain from these pines 
in due time. 

I now beg to offer some brief data in reference to 
the present consumption of wood in Victoria. 

After the perusal of various official returns, I am 
inclined to assume that twenty tons would be a fair 
average of the quantity of fuel consumed in each 
household. This would amount to rather more than 
three millions of tons of wOt)d as the present annual 
requirement of domestic fuel in this colony. In the 
city and suburbs the consumption is considerably less 
than in the farming districts, on account of the use of 
coal. In reference to the return of mining -wood, 



80 I'OREST CULTURE AND 

quoted on this occasion, a large allowance must yet 
be made for the enormous mass of wood from the felled 
trees, which is left unutilized in the ranges, the dis- 
tance, in many cases, being too great to convey the 
off- fall of the timber for the purpose of fuel. The fol- 
lowing data convey some information on the annual 
consumption of wood in various districts : 

Tons. 

Ararat (under license) 13, 146 

" (without " ) 13,146 

Blackwood Mining Division 12,000 

Buninyong *. 40,000 

Colac (for saw-mills, 6,000 tons ; posts and rails, 6,000 

tons ; shingles, 2,000 tons ; fuel, 30,000 tons) 44,000 

Creswick (sawn timber for Clunes, 15,000 tons ; sawn 
timber for Amherst, 2,000 tons ; sawn timber for 
Creswick, 2,500 tons ; fuel for Clunes, 30,000 

tons ; fuel for Creswick, 20,000 tons) 69,500 

Castlemaine 37,500 

Casterton 14,000 

Daylesford (mining timber, 20,000 tons ; fuel, 50,000 

tons) 70,000 

Dunkeld— sawn timber, 800,000 feet ; rails, 20,000 
pieces ; Red Gum posts, 10,000 pieces. 

Eltham 13,600 

Fryerstown 57,200 

Geelong 52,000 

Grant 4,600 

Maryborough 200,000 

Nuna wading (cut under license) 10,000 

("without " ) 190,000 

Sandhurst 300,000 

( Another informant gives the approximate quan- 
tity used solely for fuel at 160,000 tons.) 

St. Arnaud ' 6.500 

Talbot (Shire of) and Borough of Amherst — Domestic 
fuel for 2,887 houses, at 6 cords or 19 1-5 tons, 
55,430 tons ; mining timber, 18,368 tons ; mills, 
3,200 tons ; charcoal, 3,328 tons ; public institu- 
tions, 2,560 tons ; bakers, etc., 1,600 tons ; fenc- 
ing and building, 6,400 tons 90,886 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 81 

Taradale (two sevenths for mining and five sevenths 

for fuel) 8,750 

TarnaguUa 20,000 to 30,000 

Tylden (for fuel, 3,890 tons ; saw-mills, 15,500 tons ; 

for splitter's use, 2,476 tons) 21,466 

Villiers, County of (approximately) 150,000 

Whittlesea — As much as 1,800 trees are annually used 
for palings, shingles, etc. 

Winchelsea 28,600 

Wood's Point 8,700 

Woodend (for firewood and split or squared timber cut 
under license, wholly exclusive of that used by 
saw-miUs) 41, 181 

On the modes of raising or renovating forests, not 
much can be said on this occasion. For natural up- 
growth, perfect clearing and fencing is recommend- 
able. Subsequently, the removal of young, crooked 
trees and the surplus of saplings is needed. Seed- 
lings may be transferred from spots where they stand 
too densely, to more open or bare places. Suckers 
should be destroyed where the gain of good timber is 
an object. Periodic clearing of young trees is effect- 
ed according to the rate of growth of the particular 
species ; lopping of branches is advisable should they 
densely meet. For broadcast sowing, the ground 
should be completely cleared and burnt. By break- 
ing the ground a great acceleration of growth of the 
trees is attained, even to a tenfold degree. Planting 
in rows affords the best access for subsequent thinning 
and successive removal of the timber ; the Quincunx 
system will give approach in three directions. Pines 
are planted in Germany only about seven feet apart, as 
they require least room of all trees ; but fifteen feet 
is a fair distance at an age of forty years. The New 
Hj^mpshire Pine stands only five or six feet apart at 



82 FOREST CULTURE AND 

an age of fifty years, and yet is not prevented by this 
crowded growth to be then one hundred feet high j 
the stems are tlien very straight, eighteen inches in 
diameter at the base. If Pines and Oaks are promis- 
cuously planted, then the former, which act as nurse- 
trees, are moved in ten or twenty years, and the 
ground is left to the Oak, or any other deciduous 
tree, at distances at first ten or twelve feet apart, and 
subsequently wider still. No decayed wood is left 
in planted forests, as it would harbor boring insects. 
Pines are considered not to increase much in value 
after eighty years, when most of them have attain- 
ed full maturity, and grow only afterward slowly. 
Sometimes as many as one thousand two hundred 
Pine-trees are set out on an acre, with a view of early 
utilization of a portion of the young trees. The rate 
of growth may be much accelerated in most trees 
by irrigation ; hence mountain streamlets should be 
diverted into horizontal ditches where forests are 
occupying hill-sides. The best-cultivated forests of 
Germany are worth from three to five times as much 
as native woods. 

For shelter plantations, intended to yield ultimate- 
ly also timber and fuel to farming populations, it is 
recommendable to adopt the American method, ac- 
cording to which belts of trees are regularly planted 
at about quarter-mile distance ; the belts, according 
to circumstances, to be from four to ten rods wide, 
and to be formed in such direction as to front the pre- 
vailing winds. These timber-belts are usually fenc- 
ed. Such shelter - trees are likely to rise to thirty 
feet in ten years, and have proved so advantageous 
^s to double the farm crop, while judicious manage- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 83 

ment of these tree-belts will supply the wood neces- 
sary for the farm. There are one million and four 
hundred thousand square miles of treeless plains in 
the United States, which, in due course of time, will 
necessarily be converted, to a great extent, into agri- 
cultural areas on account of the generally excellent 
soil. The Locust-tree is much chosen for shelter pur- 
poses. Denuded wood-land, of poor soil, left undis- 
turbed to natural renovation, has become, in some 
populous localities, five times as valuable as the ad. 
joining inferior tillage or pasture-land. For the great- 
est profit in fuel, the trees, in some parts of North 
America, are cut about every sixteen years. We 
here, commanding Eucalypts, Acacias, and Casuari- 
nas, would gain wood - harvests still speedier. The 
increased value of less fertile lands, through sponta- 
neous upgrowth of timber, is estimated at sixteen 
hundredths of simple interest annually in woodless 
localities, no labor being expended on this method of 
wood - culture. Judicious management in thinning 
out enhances the value of such forest land still more. 
Wet and undrained grounds can be made to yield a 
return in Elms, Willows, Cottonwood, Swamp Cy- 
presses, and other swamp trees, or stony declivities 
in Pines and Eucalypts, at a trifling cost. For details, 
the forest literature, which is in Germany particularly 
rich, should be studied. Capitalists would likely find 
it safer and more profitable to secure land for timber- 
growth than to invest in many another speculation. 
After the example set at Massachusetts our agricul- 
tural societies might award premiums and medals for 
the best timber-pl^tations raised in their districts. 
We have societies for the protection of domestic ani- 



84 FOREST CULTURE AND 

mals, native or introduced birds, young fish, etc.; 
why could not a strong and widely-spreading league 
be organized for the saving of the native forests ? 
Might not every child in a school plant a memorial 
tree, to be intrusted to its care, to awaken thus an 
interest in objects of this kind at an early age ? 

Reverting to the importance of shelter, let me 
remark that fifty years ago the Peach flourished in 
North Pennsylvania, in Ohio and New York, where 
it cannot any longer now be grown, in consequence 
of the now colder and far more changeable climate, 
after the forests became extensively removed. Even 
ordinary orchards and cereal fields suffer there now. 
Yet, poor land will yield a better return in wood than 
in corn crops, and it is not too much to say that the 
favorable effect of a young forest on climate may be 
felt already, after a dozen years. Even on ordinary 
sheep-runs, trees are of the greatest importance, both 
for shelter and shade. 

Having endeavored to explain forest value as it pre- 
sents itself in its primary aspects — namely, in refer- 
ence to its importance to Nature's great economy, and 
in reference to its timber resources, as viewed in the 
abstract — I now proceed to enter on a new field of 
consideration, which, though secondary in impor- 
tance, is well deserving of our calm attention ; and 
this all the more since this field of industrial enter- 
prise remained yet almost bare or unharvested, where' 
as any utilization of this new ground must have, to 
inquiring minds, more than ordinary charm. 

I therefore now proceed to explain some of the 
technologic features of woodlands. 

A leading industry in all forests is the productio» 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 85 

of charcoal. It may be made in mounds, caverns, or 
ovens. The method most frequently adopted is that 
in mounds or meilers, and to this I may devote a few 
explanatory words, as not every one in this hall may 
be conversant with the process; for, simple as the 
process does appear, it is, after all, not performable 
without some skill, if coal of a superior quality is to 
be the result. The wood is closely packed around a 
central post in regular form, the pieces either all hor- 
izontally, or, oftener, the lower vertically. Only such 
wood should be used as is unfit for timber ; it must, 
however, be of one kind only, or of such various sorts 
as require the same degree of heat for being converted 
into a perfect coal. It must be sound and almost air- 
dry. A loamy sand -soil forms the best base for a 
mound ; and this soil requires to be broken up, lev- 
eled and pressed, also dried by branchlets being burnt 
on the ground. The form of the mound or meiler is 
usually hemispherical, and support is given to this 
mound in the manner indicated in the sketch here 
presented, the outer support consisting of short logs 
of wood. 

The inner part of the cover is formed of sods of 
grass, branchlets, rushes, and similar substances ; over 
this is placed the outer portion of the cover, consist- 
ing of moist forest -soil, particularly fresh humus. 
The united covering must permit the vapors of the 
glowing meiler to escape. Shelter against wind is 
absolutely requisite ; the operation of burning coal can 
therefore be well performed only in still air. The 
ignition commences from an opening left purposely, 
either at the base or, less frequently, at the summit 
of the structure, but either opening is closed again 

*5 



86 FOREST CULTURE AND 

during the burning process. Caution is needed to 
prevent the expansive vapors and gases causing ex- 
plosions during the glowing of the wood. To pro- 
mote combustion on places where it may have been 
suppressed, holes are forced through the covering on 
the second or third day, particularly on the lee side. 

A bursting forth of gases of a blueish hue indicates 
active burning, and under such circumstances the 
access given to the air must be closed, while new per- 
forations are made in any yet inactive portion of the 
meiler. 

Over-great activity of fire is suppressed by water 
applied to the covering, or by adding to the thickness 
of the latter. Strong sinking of the cover during the 
earlier burning proves more or less complete combus- 
tion of the coal, and it may then become necessary to 
refill hurriedly the holes with wood or coal, under- 
closure of all openings, and careful restoration of the 
cover thus temporarily removed on one spot. This 
refilling in large meilers may be required for five days 
in succession ; but the more carefully the mound has 
been built, and the more watchfully the early glow- 
ing process has been conducted, the less necessity will 
arise for the troublesome and wasteful process of re- 
filling. A final additional covering becomes frequent- 
ly needful. The operation closes by the sinking of 
the cover, or by its being partially forced downward, 
and the ready coals are removable one day afterward. 
Partial withdrawals of coal can be effected from the 
lee side while the meiler is still active. 

The specific gravity of charcoal stands generally in 
a precise proportion to the specific weight of the wood 
employed. Dryer wood realizes a heavier, moister 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 87 

wood a lighter coal. Slow combustion also renders 
■ the coal heavier than a more rapid burning process, 
because in the latter case more carbon is consumed 
for various volatile products formed from the wood. 
As a rule, the quantity of coal' obtained is about a 
quarter of the weight of wood emi)loyed. Good coal 
has a slight metallic lustre, is firm, not friable, caus- 
ing a clear sound when thrown on the ground. It 
must burn without flame and smoke. For trade pur- 
poses coal must be kept dry, as its absorption of hu- 
midity is considerable.* The heating power of coal 
as compared to wood is ascertained to be as one hun- 
dred to fifty-five or sixty. An equal volumen of wood 
produces less heating effect than the same space of 
coal. For technic operations the equable and more 
lasting heat, and the great power of radiation, give 
to charcoal its special value. Igniting wood for char- 
coal in caverns is wasteful, through the great access 
of air. 

By the method of carbonizing wood in ovens, tar 
and other volatile products can be secured. The wood 
chosen for coal intended for gunpowder is chiefly 
that of Willows, Poplars, Alder, and Lime. It must 
be healthy, and is preferred from young trees. Woods 
which contain a good deal of hygroscopic salts — such 
as that of Elms, Firs, Oaks — are not adapted for the 
purpose. Extreme degrees of heat in producing coal 
for gunpowder or blasting powder should be avoided, 
otherwise the best wood will not serve the purpose, 
because the powder would be less ready to ignite. 
The yield of this coal is sixteen to seventeen one 

*For extensive details consult von Berg's Anleilung sum Verkohlen ; also, 
Muspratt's Chemistry. 



88 FOKEST CULTURE AND 

hundredths from the wood. Local powder-mills are 
sure to be established here, especially as sulphur is 
readily obtainable from New Zealand. The increase 
of manufactures is also certain to augment the de- 
mand for wood and coal hereafter. For many indus- 
trial purposes charcoal Is far preferable to fossil coal. 
Coals from various kinds of Victorian wood are placed 
before you. 

It was my intention, while explaining the industrial 
resources of the forest, to show also how tar, vinegar 
and spirits might be obtained by heating wood in 
close vessels, at a temperature of three hundred to 
three hundred and fifty centigr., under a process call- 
ed dry distillation. But I must reserve this subject 
for another occasion ,• for, however simple the proced- 
ure may be regarded, as far as the actual performance 
of this artisan's work is concerned, yet the chemic 
processes, which are active in this form of decomposi- 
tion, are of the greatest complexity ; they present, 
moreover, according to the wood employed and ac- 
cording to the degree of heat applied, some peculiar- 
ities, which as yet have not been fully investigated, 
holding out hope for the discovery of some new dyes 
and other educts. It will be scarcely credited by most 
of this audience that the paraffin, which now large- 
ly enters into the material for the candles of our house- 
holds, is not only obtainable from bituminous slates, 
turf and fossil coal, but is also produced by the heat- 
ing of wood under exclusion of air. This substance 
is furthermore a hydrocarbon of great purity ,• and its 
cheap preparation, along with other substances from 
our native wood, may possibly become a local source 
of immense wealth. For obtaining information on the 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 89 

products from heated wood, and the various appa- 
ratus employed in dry distillation, reference may be 
made to the great work. Chemistry Applied to Arts 
and Mamifactures, by Professor Muspratt, a man of 
genius and industry, whose death within the last few 
months we had so deeply to deplore. 

Presented to you here are samples of tar, acetic 
acid, and alcohol, from several of our more common 
woods ; also pieces of pine-wood, coated with euca- 
lyptus tar, the black color, with its fine lustre, have 
remained unimpaired for a series of years. Our wood- 
tar would, for many industrial purposes, be equal in 
value to the best kinds of other tar, and may prove, 
in some respects, superior to them. 

Among the undeveloped wood-resources we must 
not pass that referring to potash, particularly as this 
alkali can be obtained without sacrifice of any valua- 
ble timber, and from localities not accessible to the 
wood trade. 

For the preparation of potash, the wood, bark, 
branches, and foliage are burnt in pits sunk three or 
four feet in the ground j tlie incineration is continued 
till the pit is almost filled with ashes. Young branch- 
es and leaves are usually much richer in potash than 
the stem-wood ; hence they should not be rejected. 
The ashes thus obtained are placed, in tubs or casks, 
on straw, over a false bottom. 

Cold water, in moderate quantities, is poured over 
the ash, and the first strong potash-liquid removed 
for evaporation in flat iron vessels, while the weaker 
fluid is used for the lixiviatlon of fresh ashes. 

While the evaporation proceeds, fresh portions of 
strong liquid are added until the concentrated boil- 
ing fluid assumes a rather thick consistence. 



90 FOREST CULTUBE AND 

At last, with mild heat and final constant stirring, 
the whole is evaporated to dryness. This dry mass 
represents crude potash more or less impure, accord- 
ing to the nature of the wood employed. 

A final heating in rough furnaces is needed, to ex- 
pel sulphur combinations, water, and empyreumatic 
substances ; also, to decompose coloring principles. 
Thus pearlash is obtained. 

Pure carbonate of potassa in crude potash varies 
from forty to eighty per cent. Experiments, as far 
as they were instituted in my laboratory, have given 
the following approximate result with respect to the 
contents of potash in some of our most common trees. 
The wood of our She-oaks (Casuarina suberosa and 
Casuarina quadrivalvis), as well as that of the Black 
or Silver Wattle (Acacia decurrens), is somewhat rich- 
er than wood of the British Oak, but far richer than 
the ordinary Pine woods. 

The stems of the Victorian Blue Gum-tree (Euca- 
lyptus globulus), and the so-called swamp Tea -tree 
(Melaleuca ericifolia), yield about as much Potash as 
European Beech. 

The foliage of the Blue Gum-tree proved particu- 
larly rich in this alkali ; and as it is heavy and easily 
collected at the saw-mills, it might be turned there to 
auxiliary profitable account, and, indeed, in many 
other spots of the ranges. 

A ton of the fresh leaves and branches yielded, in 
two analyses, four and three quarters pounds of pure 
potash, equal to about double the quantity of the av- 
erage kinds of pearlash. The three species of Euca- 
lypts spontaneously occurring close around Melbourne 
— the Red Gum-tree (Eucalyptus rostrata) ; the Man- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 91 

na Gum-tree (Eucalyptus viminalis) ; the Box Gum- 
tree (Eucalyptus melliodora) produced nearly three 
pounds of pure potash, or about five pounds of pearl- 
ash from a ton of fresh leaves and branches ; while a 
ton of the wood of the Red Gum-tree, in a dried state, 
gave nearly two pounds weight of pure carbonate of 
potassa, whereas the wood of the Blue Gum-tree 
proved still richer. A ton of the dry wood of the 
erect She-oak (Casuarina suberosa) furnished the large 
quantity of six and one half pounds of pure potash. 
This result is about equal to that obtainable from the 
European Lime-tree or Linden-tree, which again is 
one of the richest of all European trees in this respect. 

Such indications may suffice to draw more fully the 
attention of forest settlers to an important but as yet 
latent branch of industry. For further details I refer 
to elaborate tables of the yield of potash in native 
trees, as the result from analyses made under my 
direction by Mr. Chr. Hoffmann — these tabulated 
statements being appended to my departmental re- 
port, presented to Parliament in 1869. The whole- 
sale price of the best pearlash is about £3 for the cwt. 
in Melbourne. 

I wish it distinctly to be understood that I do not 
advocate an indiscriminate sacrifice of our forest-trees 
for any solitary one of its products, such as the pot- 
ash ; because by any such procedure we would still 
more accelerate the reduction of our woods. On the 
contrary, good timber, fit for sj)litting or for the saw- 
mill, ought to be far too precious for potash or tar 
preparation. But branch- wood, bark, roots, crooked 
stems, and even foliage, might well be utilized for 
this industry, wherever the place is too remote to dis- 



92 FOREST CULTURE AND 

pose of this material for fuel. The recommendation 
carries with it still more weight, if we remember how 
on many places the close growth of suckers or seed- 
lings has to be thinned to allow of space for the new 
and unimpaired upgrowth of actual timber ; whereas, 
moreover, now the remnants at places where trees 
have been felled, often block by impenetrable barri- 
cades the accessible lines of traffic through the forests, 
and are frequently the cause of the extensive confla- 
grations of the woods, by placing so much combus- 
tible, dry, and mostly oily material within the easy 
reach of the current of flames. Should, unfortunately, 
the fiery element have anywhere swept through the 
forest, it may then prove advantageous to collect the 
fresh ashes before they are soaked by rain, with the 
object of extracting thus large quantities of potash. 
The whole process of potash preparation being one of 
the simplest kind, and involving only a very trifling 
expense in casks and boiling-pans, can be carried out 
anywhere as a by-work, the profit thus being not 
reduced by skilled or heavy labor or by costly plant. 
The demand for potash must always be considerable, 
as it is required for the factories of niter (particularly 
from soda saltpeter), one of the three principal in- 
gredients of gunpowder and blasting-powder ; it is 
needed also for glass, alum, various kinds of soaps, 
dyes, and many chemicals.^ 

Potash, although universally distributed, is best 
obtained in the manner indicated. I may remark, 
however, though deviating from my subject, that it is 
one of the most potent constituents in all manures, 

* Flint-glass contains about a fifth pure pearlasli ; crown-glass, the best 
window-glass, rathgr fflore thap a quarter. Some potash-niter is wanted also 
ia either citsg. 



EUCALYPTUS TEEES. 93 

being especially needed in the soil for all kinds of root- 
crops, for vine and maize ; nor can most other plants 
live without it altogether, although the quantity re- 
quired may be small ; but I must add, for manuring, 
potash by itself would be far too valuable. 

Almost every kind of forage affords potash salts, 
these being among the necessaries for the support of 
herbivorous animals. Their undue diminution in food 
is the cause of various diseases, both in the animal 
and vegetable world ; or predisposes, by abnormal 
chemic components of the organisms, to disease. 

The muscles of the human structure require a com- 
paratively large proportion of carbonate of potassa ; it 
is also absolutely required in blood, predominating in 
the red corpuscles. Plants grown in soil of rocks con- 
taining much feldspar — such as granite, gneiss, syen- 
ite, some porphyries, diorite — are always particularly 
productive in potash, potassium entering largely into 
felspatic compounds. The latter mineral yields, in 
most cases, from twelve to fourteen per cent, of po- 
tassa, which, if changed to carbonate, would become 
augmented by nearly one half more. It is fixed chiefly 
to silicic acid in feldspar, and thus only tardily set free 
through disintegration, partly by the chemic action 
of air, water, and various salts, partly through the 
mechanic force of vegetation.* The importation of 
potash into Victoria during 1870 was only one hun- 
dred and seventy tons, but, with the increase of 
chemic factories, we shall require much more. 

It has justly been argued that the chemic analysis 
affords a very unsafe guidance to the artisan, as re- 
gards the quantity of potash obtainable from any kind 

* The proverb of chemistry — " (Corpora non agunl, nisi fluida " — }5 Jlt-Te 
fljeo applicable. 



94 FOREST CULTURE AND 

of tree or other plant, inasmuch as necessarily the per- 
centage must fluctuate according to the nature of the 
soil, this, again, depending on geologic structure and 
the quality and quantity of decaying foliage on any 
particular spot. It should, however, not be quite for- 
gotten that most plants have a predilection for that 
soil which contains, in regions otherwise favorable to 
them, also due proportions of such mineral particles as 
are essentially necessary for the normal nutrition of 
the peculiar species ; for, otherwise, in the wild com- 
bat for space it would succumb or cede before the 
more legitimate occupant of such soil. Hence, at a 
glance, even from long distances, we may recognize 
in many of our forest regions an almost abrupt line 
of demarcation between the gregarious trees, where 
one geologic formation meets or replaces the other. 
Thus, trees richer in potash, or oils, or any other 
product, may often be traced with ease over their 
geologic area, for which purpose the admirable maps 
of Mr. Selwyn and his collaborators afford us here in 
Victoria also in this respect already so very much 
facility. 

I have often been led to think that many an indi- 
gent person might find employment by collecting the 
wood-ashes, which, as a powerful manure, or as ma- 
terial for a local potash-factory, ought to realize a fair 
price. Such an employment would be probably as 
lucrative as collecting glass, or bones, or substances 
for paper-mills, while the ashes, now largely wasted, 
would be fully utilized. 

It may be assumed that, at an average, the ash of 
our ordinary Eucalypts contains ten per cent, of crude 
potash^ equal to about five per cent, pure potash, A 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 95 

bucketful of wood-ash, such as we daily remove from 
our domestic fire-places, contains about twenty-five 
pounds, from which, accordingly, about two and one 
half pounds of inferior, or one and one fourth pounds 
of superior potash, may be obtained ; the former 
being worth about sixpence per pound, the latter 
double the price. For ascertaining the contents of 
carbonate of potassa in crude potash or pearlash, cer- 
tain instruments, well known as alkali - meters, are 
constructed. The heaviest ashes, as a rule, contain 
the greatest proportion of potash. The brake-fern, so 
common on many river-banks and sandy tracts of the 
country, is rich in this alkali. 

Apart from my subject, I may, however, say that 
there are other sources of potash-salts than trees alone. 
Chloride of potassium is obtained from some large 
salt-beds, for instance, in Prussia. From this source it 
was supplied to British manufactories, in 1869, to the 
extent of one hundred and fifty-four thousand four 
hundred and sixty-eight hundred weight, valued at 
above £60,000. This chloride is besides obtained, under 
Mons. Balard's process (Report of Juries at the Inter- 
national Exhibition for 1862), in considerable quanti- 
ties from sea- water, as one of the contents to be util- 
ized. From this chloride the various potash salts, 
otherwise largely obtained from pearlash, can be also 
prepared. Chlorides and sulphates, if they occur in 
crude potash, can, in the process of purification, almost 
completely be removed through crystallization from 
the greatly concentrated solution. 

Let us now approach another forest industry, one 
quite unique and peculiar to Australia — namely, the 
cJistiUation of volatile oil from Eucalyptus and allied 



96 FOREST CULTURE AND 

Myrtaceous trees. While charcoal, tar, wood- vinegar, 
wood-spirit, tannic substances and potash, are obtain- 
able and obtained from the woods of any country, we 
have in Australia a resource of our own in the Euca- 
lyptus oil. In no other part of the globe do we find 
the Myrtacese to prevail ; in Europe it is only the 
Myrtus of the ancients, the beautiful bush for bridal 
wreaths, which there represents this particular family 
of plants; and although copious species of Eugenia 
and other berry -bearing genera, including the aro- 
matic clove and allspice, are scattered through the 
warmer regions of Asia, Africa, and America, all per- 
vaded by essential oil, they do not constitute the 
main bulk of any forests as here, nor can their oil in 
chemic or technic properties be compared to that of 
the almost exclusively Australian Eucalyptus. This 
special industry of ours exemplifies also, in a manner 
quite remarkable, how from apparently insignificant 
experiments may arise results far beyond original an- 
ticipations. When, in 1854, as one of the commis- 
sioners for the Victorian Industrial Exhibition, held 
in anticipation of the first Paris Exhibition, I induced 
my friend, Mr. Joseph ]?osisto, J. P., to distil the oil 
of one of our Eucalypts, I merely wished to sllow that 
this particular oil might be substituted for the com- 
paratively costly oil of cajuput, obtained in some 
parts of India, and rather extensively used in some 
countries for medical purposes. For the exhibition 
of 1862 about thirty different oils were prepared by 
the same gentleman, chiefly from various Eucalypts, 
and from material mostly selected by myself for the 
purpose. This led not merely to determining the 
percentage of yield^ but also to extensive experi« 



fiUCAlYPTUS TREES. 97 

merits, here chiefly by Messrs. Bosisto and Osborne, 
and in London by Dr. Gladstone, in reference to the 
illuminating power, the solvent properties, and other 
special qualities of each of these oils. The principal 
results of these experiments were recorded in reports 
of the exhibition jurors at the time. Mr. Bosisto, 
with great sagacity and a commendable perseverance, 
but also at first with much sacrifice of capital, carried 
his researches so far as to give to them great utilita- 
rian value and mercantile dimensions ; moreover, he 
patented d process by which he was enabled to derive 
from the eucalyptus foliage the greatest amount of 
the purest essential oil with the least consumption of 
fuel and application of labor. "Under this process it 
became possible to produce the oil at a price so cheap 
as to allow the article to be used in various branches 
of art — for instance, in the manufacture of scented 
soap, it having been ascertained that this oil sur- 
passed any other in value for diluting the oils of roses, 
of orange flowers, and other very costly oils, for 
which purposes it proved far more valuable than the 
oil of rosemary and other ethereal oils hitherto used. 
Suddenly, then, such a demand arose that our 
thoughtful and enterprising fellow-citizen could ex- 
port already about nine thousand pounds to England 
and three thousand pounds to foreign ports, though 
even now this oil is as yet but very imperfectly known 
abroad. The average quantity now produced at his 
establishment, for export, is seven hundred pounds 
per month. Alcoholic extracts of the febrifugal foli- 
age of Eucalyptus globulus and Eucalyptus amygda- 
lina have also been exported in quantity by the same 
gentleman to England, Germany, and America. 



98 FOREST CULTtJRE A^b 

Similar substances from various melaleucas might be 
added. Originally, an opinion was entertained that 
all the eucalyptus oils have great resemblance to each 
other ; such, however, proved not to be the case when 
it came to accurate experimental tests. Thus, for 
instance, the oil which in such rich percentage is 
obtained from Eucalyptus amygdalina, though excel- 
lent for diluting the most delicate essential oils, is of 
far less value as a solvent for resins in the fabrication 
of select varnishes. For this latter purpose the oil 
of one of the dwarf Eucalypts forming the Mallee 
Scrub, a species to which I gave, on account of its 
abundance of oil, the name ''Eucalyptus oleosa" 
nearly a quarter of a century ago, proved far the best. 
It is this Mallee oil which now is coming into exten- 
sive adaptations for dissolving amber, Kauri resin, 
and various kinds of copal. Mr. Bosisto's researches 
are recorded in the volume of the Royal Society of 
Victoria for 1863 ; Mr. Osborne's in the Jurors' 
Reports of the Exhibition of 1862. For alluding so 
far to this oil distillation I have a special object in 
view. I wish to see it adopted near and far as a col- 
lateral forest industry, now that the way for the ready 
sale of this product is so far paved. The patentee is 
willing to license any person to adopt his process, and 
he is also ready to purchase the oil at a price which 
will prove remunerative to the producer. If it is now 
considered how inexhaustible a material for this oil 
industry is everywhere accessible in our ranges, how 
readily it is obtainable, particularly at saw-mills and 
at splitters' establishments, and how easily the pro- 
cess of the distillation can be performed, it would be 
really surprising should these facilities not be seized 



£lTCAtiYl»TtJS TREES. 99 

Upon, and should under such favorable circumstances 
not a far larger export of this mercantile commodity 
be called forth. Those Eucalypts are the most pro- 
ductive of oil in their foliage which have the largest 
number of pellucid dots in their leaves ; this is easily 
ascertained by viewing the leaves by transmitted 
light, when the transparent oil-glands will become 
apparent, even without the use of a magnifying lens. 
Mr. Bosisto is also a purchaser of scented flowers, 
indigenous as well as cultivated, including even the 
wattle flowers, for the extraction of delicate scents, 
under a clever process discovered by himself ; and it 
is astonishing what an enormous demand for these 
perfumes exists in European markets. This may be 
a hint to any one living in or near the forests, where 
the extraction of the scent could be locally accom- 
plished from unlimited resources, with little trouble 
and cost. 

There exists another special industry in its incip- 
ient state among us, which might be regarded as 
essentially Australian, and which also might be wide- 
ly extended : I mean the gathering of seeds of many 
kinds of Eucalyptus, and also of some Acacias and 
Casuarinas, for commercial export. No doubt the col- 
lecting of seeds is effected among the forest-trees of 
any country, and very important branches of industry 
these gatherings are, in very many localities abroad. 
But what gives to our own export trade of forest 
seeds such significance is the fact that we offer thereby 
means of raising woods with far more celerity and 
ease than would be possible through dissemination of 
trees from any other part of the globe, it being under- 
stood that the operations are instituted in climatic 



loo FOREST CULTURE AND 

zones similar to our own. Trees with softer kinds of 
woods, such as Poplars and Willows, even though they 
may rival some of the Euealypts in quickness of 
growth, cannot be well drawn into comparison, as 
most of them do not live in dry soil, nor attain lon- 
gevity, nor assume gigantic dimensions, nor furnish 
timber of durability. But there are still other rea- 
sons which have drawn our Euealypts into extensive 
cultural use elsewhere — for instance, in Algeria, 
Spain, Portugal, Italy, the south of France, Greece, 
Egypt, Palestine, various uplands of India, the savan- 
nahs of North America, the lianas of South America, 
at Natal and other places in South Africa, and even 
as near as New Zealand.* One of the advantages 
offered is the extraordinary facility and quick- 
ness with which the seeds are raised, scarcely any 
care being requisite in nursery works; a seedling, 
moreover, being within a year, or even less time, fit 
for final transplantation. Another advantage consists 
in the ease with which the transit can be effected, 
in consequence of the minuteness of most kinds of 
Eucalyptus seeds,! there being, besides, no difficulty 
in packing on account of the natural dryness of these 
seeds.* For curiosity's sake I had an ounce of the 
seed of several species counted, with the following 
results: — • 
Blue Gum-tree, one ounce — sifted fertile seed grains.. .. 10,112 

Stringy-bark tree (unsifted) 21,080 

Swamp Gum-tree (unsifted) 23,264 

Peppermint Eucalypt (unsifted) 17,600 

* The seeds of Eucalyptus rostrata (our Red Gum-tree) are available for 
all tropic countries, inasmuch as this species, which is almost incompara» 
bly valuable for its lasting wood, ranges naturally right through the hot 
zone of Australia. 

t The seeds of the West Australian Red Gum-tree (Eucalyptus calophylla) 
and the East Australian Bloodwood-tree (Eucalyptus corymbosa) are com* 
paratively large and heavy. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 10 1 

According to this calculation we could raise from one 
pound of seeds of the Blue Gum-tree one hundred and 
sixty-one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two 
plants. Let us suppose, for argument's sake, that only 
half the seeds of such grew, the number of seedlings 
would be enormous ; and even if only the seedlings 
of one quarter of the seeds of one pound finally were 
established, they would suflSce, in the instance of the 
Blue Gum-tree, to cover four hundred and four acres, 
assuming that we planted at the rate of one hundred 
trees to the acre (allowing for thinning out). The fol- 
lowing notes, for comparison, may be of interest: 

One ounce of: Contains Grains. 

Pinus pinaster 730 

Finns pinea 38 

Pinus haleppensis 940 

Pinus alba 10,080 

Cupressus sempervirens 4,970 

Fraxinus ornus 316 

Betula alba 34,560 

Acer pseudoplatanus 183 

It seems marvellous that trees of such colossal di- 
mensions, counting among the most gigantic of the 
globe, should arise from a seed-grain so extremely 
minute. 

The exportation of Eucalyptus-seeds has already as- 
sumed some magnitude. Our monthly mails conveyed 
occasionally quantities to the value of over £100; the 
total export during the past twelve years must have 
reached several or, perhaps, many thousand pounds 
sterling. For the initiation of this new resource, by 
his extensive correspondence abroad, the writer can 
lay much claim j and he believes that almost any 
quantity of Eucalyptus-seeds could bo sold in markets 

6 



lO^ FOREST CULTURE Alft) 

of London, Paris, Calcutta, San Francisco, Buenos 
Ayres, Valparaiso and elsewhere, as it will be long 
before a sufficient local supply can be secured abroad 
from cultivated trees. 

Monsieur Prosper Ramel, of Paris, stands foremost 
among those who promoted Eucalyptus culture in 
South Europe. 

Facts, such as just alluded to, may give an idea 
with what ease the Eucalyptus can be disseminated 
over extensive areas. Although the first cost of seeds, 
or the facilities for their transit, preservation, and 
germination, can only enter to a small extent into 
consideration, when an object so important as that of 
raising or restoring forests is to be attained, yet the 
data thus far given in reference to some of the best 
Eucalypts cannot but tend toward encouragement of 
culture here and abroad. Indeed, among nearly all 
the trees of the globe, most of our Eucalypts, together 
with species of the allied genera — tristania, ango- 
phora, melaleuca and metrosideros — produce seeds 
the most minute and the most copious. The seeds of 
the Birches, and of most species of ficus are, however, 
also remarkably light and numerous. 

At saw-mills and splitters' establishments, the gath- 
ering of seeds, particularly through the aid of chil- 
dren, might be carried on most conveniently and most 
inexpensively, the sums realized therefrom being clear 
gain. The same may be said of collecting the abun- 
dant gum -resins of various Eucalypts, which, for 
medicinal and technologic purposes, are now in much 
demand for export. Purchasers in the city offer about 
one shilling per pound. The liquid (very astringent) 
exudations of the Eucalypts are also salable. The 



tetrCALYPTUS THEES. 103 

precise quantity of tannic' substance to be obtained 
from saplings and foliage of various Eucalypts, acacise 
and casuarinse remains yet unascertained ; but it is 
likely large enough to base on their yield of tannic 
acid special forest industries. 

For belts of shelter-plantations, again, no country 
in the warm temperate or subtropic zone could choose 
trees of easier growth, greater resistance, rapidity of 
increment, early and copious seeding, contentedness 
with poor soil, and yet valuable wood for various pur- 
poses, than some of the Australian acacise and casua- 
rinse. They exceed much in quickness of growth the 
coast shelter-pines of South Europe, Pinus haleppen- 
sis and Pinus pinaster, but are not all equally lasting. 
The trade in seeds of this kind is also not unimpor- 
tant, and the sources of it are, at least partly, in our 
sylvan land. 

Still another forest industry might be viewed as 
especially Australian, namely, the supply of Fern-trees 
for commercial exportation. Though about one hun- 
dred and fifty kinds of Fern-trees are now known, 
they are mostly children of tropical or subtropical 
countries, and these, again, nearly all restricted to the 
humid jungles or the shady valleys meandered by for- 
est brooks. Very few species of these noble plants 
extend to a zone so cool as that of Victoria, Tasma. 
uia, and New Zealand. Again, among this very lim- 
ited number, the stout and large Dicksonia antartica 
is not only one of the tallest of all the Fern-trees of 
the globe, but certainly also the most hardy, and the 
one which best of all endures a transit through great 
distances. Indeed, a fresh, frondless stem, even if 
weighing nearly half a ton, requires only to be placed, 



104 FOREST CULTURE AND 

without any packing, in the hold of a vessel as ordi- 
nary goods, to secure the safe arrival in Europe,* the 
vitality being fully thus retained for several months, 
particularly if the stem is occasionally moistened, and 
kept free from the attacks of any animals. Through 
my unaided exertions these hardy Fern-trees became, 
like many other of our resources, fully known in 
many countries ; and, while their value became estab- 
lished, a market for them has now been gained. I 
would, however, not countenance the vandalism of 
denuding every one of our Fern-glens of its pride, as, 
even with all care, in half a century the pristine grand- 
eur of the scenery could not be restored ; yet, when 
we consider that hundreds of gullies are teeming with 
these magnificent plants, we can well aflford to render 
them accessible also to all the conservatories of the 
winterly north, in order that the inhabitants there 
may indulge in admiration of such superb forms of 
vegetable life, even though a Fern-tree group in a 
glass house can convey but a very inadequate idea of 
the wild splendor of our Fern ravines. Not without 
pain I have seen constructed the base of whole tram- 
way lines in some of our forest-gullies, almost exclu- 
sively of Fern-trees, for the conveyance of timber. A 
watchful Forest Board would prevent such sacrifice, 
and would save also the tall Palm-trees of East Gipps 
Land from sharing the fate of those princely trees at 
Illawarra and elsewhere. [ Since writing this, our 
Livistonas or Fan-palms have been protected by Gov- 
ernment interdiction ; the law forbids also the indis- 
criminate removal of Red Gum-trees from the banks of 
the Murray River. In Queensland, every bunya- 

* No Fern-tree ia indigenous to Europe. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 105 

bunya tree and native nut-tree is secured against be- 
ing felled. Ttie very local and circumscribed Kauri 
forests, known only in two limited spots, would also 
need some protection.] To the facilities of exporting 
the huge, square Todea Ferns — a commerce initiated 
by myself — I alluded on a former occasion. 

Having dwelt* en some of the technologic or mer- 
cantile products obtainable from the native forests — 
few, it is true — I now pass on to some brief observa- 
tions in reference to enriching the resources of our 
woods. 

Among new industries which, by introduction from 
abroad, are likely to be pursued in sylvan localities, 
that of the cultivation of the Tea shrub of China and 
Assam stands, perhaps, foremost. It is a singular fact 
that even in the genial clime of Southern Europe, and 
under advantages of inexpensive labor, the important 
and lucrative branch of Tea-culture has received as yet 
no attention whatever. This is probably owing to the 
circumstance that hitherto the laborious manual pro- 
cess of curling the fresh Tea-leaves under moderate 
heat has never yet been superseded by adopting for 
the purpose rollers worked and heated by steam, 
though such contrivance was suggested here by me 
many years ago. 

The tea thus obtained could always be brought to 
its best aroma by such a mode of exact control over 
the degree and duration of the heat. Tea-culture in 
the ranges would show us which soil, or which geo- 
logic formation, produced here the best leaves. The 
yield of the latter would, in the equable air of the hu- 
mid air of the forest-glens, be far more copious than 



106 FOBEST CULTURE AND 

the harvests which we obtain from the tea -bushes 
planted in poor soil or exposed localities near the 
metropolis, while localities in the ranges are often not 
accessible to ordinary cereal culture. But I do not 
speak of Tea cultivation as an ordinary field industry, 
but rather as a collateral occupation in forest-culture 
of the lower ranges. 

Foreseeing the likelihood that this branch of rural 
culture would be adopted in many favorable warm 
spots of this colony, I have distributed, during the 
past dozen years, the Tea - bush rather extensively 
among country residents, partly with the view of 
directing attention to a plant which, even for the 
sake of ornamental value, is so eligible and easily 
grown ; partly with an intention of seeing thus inde- 
pendent local supplies of seed forthcoming. In the 
same way the Cork Oak was very generally distributed 
by myself, in order that their acorns might, in due 
time, become locally accessible in very many places. 

The tea, in its commercial form, will however, 
here, not likely be manufactured by the grower. It 
is more probable that whenever plantations are formed 
in any forest region, an enterprising man will estab- 
lish amidst the tea- farms a factory for preparing the 
tea-leaves, and purchase the latter from the produc- 
ers. This is the system by which, in many parts of 
South Europe, the multitude of small lots of silk- 
cocoons pass into the central reeling establishments ; 
and this is the manner in which, from numerous peas- 
ants, the beet- root is obtained for the supply of sugar 
factories. In the same way the branches of the Su- 
Ifiach^ a sliriib which, \yitU carej could be reared \jfi 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 107 

our ranges, would be rendered saleable at a central 
sumach mill,* The demand for tea being so enor- 
mous, and geographic latitudes like ours being those 
which allow of its growth, it will be fully apparent 
that it must assume a prominent part in our future 
rural economy, particularly as the return for capital 
and labor thus invested and expended will be quite 
as early as that from the vine. The importation of 
tea into Victoria, during 1870, has been valued in 
the customs returns at £496,623 ; whereas Victoria 
might largely export this highly important and remu- 
nerative commodity. 

The simple process of gathering the leaves might 
be performed by children. 

In the foregoing pages I alluded cursorily to the 
Cork Oak ; let me add my opinion, that in any local- 
ity with natural boundaries, such as abrupt sides of 
ranges, deep water -courses, where fences could be 
largely obviated, the Cork-tree might well be planted 
as a forest-tree, and thus estates be established at lit- 
tle cost, with hardly any expense of maintenance, 
from which a periodic yield of cork might be obtained 
for several successive generations. The investment 
of a limited capital for raising a cork-forest in any 
naturally-defined locality would, as I said, create a 
rich possession for bequest. Even if by new inven- 
tions an artificial substitute for cork was found, the 
wood of the Cork Oak would still be of some value. 
The State might also reserve any forest area with 
natural boundaries for its various wood requirements. 

*An essay l)y Proiessor Inzenga, on Sumach.culture in Sicily, translated 
by Colonel H. Yule, C.B., la published in the Transactions of the Botanio 
Society of Edinburgh, vol, ix,, 341-355, and wfts, OQ my 8Ugge8|ioa, trftft?» 
Jejyed tP » local journal, 



108 FOREST CULTURE AND 

Many other cultural resources of forests are as yet 
very inadequately recognized. The dye-saffron might 
be grown as much for amusement as for the sake of its 
pretty flowers, just as an ordinary bulb, wherever ju. 
venile gatherers can be had. Equally lucrative might 
be made the culture of another plant, the medicinal 
colchicum, a gay Autumnal flowering bulb worthy of 
a place in any garden. In apt forest spots both would 
become naturalized. Amidst the forests, in the glens 
which skirt the very base of alpine mountains, on the 
M' AUister River, opium was produced without any toil, 
almost as a play-work, to the value of £30, from an 
acre. Mr. Bosisto, who, on that particular locality, 
called forth this industry, found on analysis that the 
Gipps Land opium proved one of the most powerful 
on record, ten one hundredths of morphia being its 
yield. Small samples of opium prepared in the Mel- 
bourne Botanic Garden were exhibited some years ago 
at the International Exhibition. The Hon. John Hood, 
of this city, promoted much the opium industry in 
this country by the extensive distribution of seeds of 
the Smyrna poppy ; he found the yield here, in favor- 
able seasons and by careful operation, to be from forty 
to fifty pounds on an acre, worth at present thirty to 
thirty - five shillings per pound. The value of the 
opium imported into Victoria during 1870, according 
to customs re turns, was £150,681. The banksof many a 
forest brook, and the slopes within reach of irrigation 
from springs, might, doubtless, in numerous instances, 
be converted into profitable hop-fields, the yield of hops 
in Gipps Land having proved very rich. Mr. A. M. 
M'Leod obtained, in one instance, fifteen hundred 
pounds of hops from an acre of ground at Bairnsdale» 



EUCALYPTUS TE^ES. 109 

Messrs. A. W. Howitt, F. Webb, and D. Ballentine 
had there also large returns from their hop-fields. As 
an instance how large a revenue might be realized 
from forest land in various ways, quite irrespective of 
wood supply, I adduce the fact that the income ob- 
tained by the Forest Department of Hanover from the 
mere gathering of fruit — chiefly bleeberries — amount- 
ed to £21,750 during one of the late years. The Han- 
overian forests comprise an area equal to the county 
of Bourke, our metropolitan county, and occupy one 
seventh of the territory. Speaking of Hanover, let 
me add, that the laws promulgated this year in that 
country render it compulsory on each district to line 
its roads with trees, the widest distance allowed from 
tree to tree being thirty feet ,• similar laws were in 
force long since in other parts of Germany ; fruit-trees 
are among the trees chosen for these lines. AVould it 
not therefore be advisable to naturalize along our forest 
brooks and in our shady vales such plants as the rasp- 
berry-bush, strawberry -plant, and others, which readily 
establish themselves ? In one of ray exploring tours, 
when it fell to my lot to discover the remotest sources 
and tributaries of the River Yarra, and to ascend first of 
all Mount Baw Baw, I scattered the seeds of the large- 
fruited Canada blackberry along the alpine springs ; 
and I have since learned that this delicious fruit is now 
established on the rivulets of that mountain. We may 
hear of equal successes of experiments which I else- 
where instituted. The truffle, though not an article 
of necessity, might be naturalized in many of our for- 
ests, especially in soil somewhat calcareous. Would 
any one imagine that during one recent year (1867) 
the quantity collected in France was valued at £l,- 

*6 



110 FOEE^ CULTURE AND 

400,000 (35,000,000 francs) ? The time allotted to 
my address is not sufficient to add much to these 
instances. 

On various occasions I drew attention to the likeli- 
hood of Peru-bark plants being eligible for culture in 
the sheltered and warmer parts of our woods, inas- 
much as in brush shades of the Botanic Gardens the 
cinchonee endured a temperature two or three degrees 
under the freezing point. Last year Cinchona-plants 
given by me to Mr. G. W. Robinson, of Hillesley, 
near Berwick, for experiment, passed quite well 
through the cool season without any cover. The 
lowest temperature at Harmony Valley, Blackwood 
Gully, in the Dandenong Ranges, observed during 
18G6 by Mr. Jabez Richardson, who, on my request, 
kindly undertook the thermometer readings there 
during that year, was still one degree above the freez- 
ing point, while the temperature at the Melbourne 
Observatory sunk to twenty -eight degrees Fahren- 
heit. Let me note, however, that simultaneously frost 
occurred in the open flats of Dandenong ; hence the 
great importance of forest shelter in cases like this. 
East Gipps Land, with its mild temperature, is likely 
to prove the aptest part of the Victorian colony for 
Peru-bark cultivation. Who does not remember the 
deep grief into which a small insular colony sunk 
within the last few years, when its population became 
actually decimated by fever^ and when, after one 
hundred and fifty years of existence of that unhappy 
colony, only just the first Cinchonas had been planted. 

In some of the uplands of New South Wales, where 
it was desirable to clear away bush vegetation — such, 
for instance, in which Daviesias, or native hop, pre- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. Ill 

dominated — angoras proved very effectual for the 
purpose. Doubtless there are many forest tracts where 
this measure could be adopted with advantage to gain 
grass pasture, without any injury being done to large 
native trees ; but the smaller trees are likely to suffer, 
while the underwood might in many instances be 
better utilized for potash or oil. At all events, goats 
are, among pastoral animals, the most destructive to 
vegetation, and much of the forests on the Alps of 
Switzerland and Tyrol were destroyed by the indis- 
criminate access given to goats. The Angora, with 
its precious fleece, can therefore be located only in 
some forest regions ; it thrives, moreover, in the 
desert. 

I might allude, on this occasion, also to the great 
productiveness of bees in our forests, the flowers of so 
many of our native plants, and among them those of 
the Eucalypts, being mellaginous — blossoms of some 
kind or the other being available all the year round. 
Cuba, with an area less than half that of Victoria, 
exported, in the year 1849, so large a quantity of 
honey as two millions and eight hundred thousand 
pounds, and about one million pounds of wax. I be- 
lieve the export has since increased. A forest inhab- 
itant might devote a plot of ground near his dwelling 
to the earth-nut or pea-nut, an originally Brazilian 
plant, of which latterly about nine hundred thousand 
bushels were produced annually in the United States 
for the sake of its excellent table-oil. In Harper's 
McKjazine of 1870 it is stated that of the earth-nut, in 
1869, not less than two hundred and thirty-five thou- 
sand bushels were brought to New York. It is esti- 
mated that Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, and Carolina 



112 FOREST CULTURE AND 

have conjointly sent over one million bushels to mar* 
ket in 1870. The yield, it is said, is from eighty to 
one hundred and twenty bushels on an acre. The 
seeds are slightly roasted for the table, or pressed for 
a palatable oil. As much as ten shillings to twelve 
shillings is paid for the bushel in New York. The 
plant seems well eligible for forest-farms, particularly 
in a somewhat calcareous soil. In the garden under 
my control I have reared it with ease. 

I intended to have spoken of the various imple- 
ments especially designed for wood-culture ; but time 
will not admit of it. Thus, merely by way of exam- 
ple, I place before you one of those utensils — the 
hohlborer, or, as it might be called, the '' bore-spade " 
— brought into use nearly fifty years ago by a scientific 
forester. Dr. Heyer, of Giessen. Several thousand 
plants of the Scotch Fir and of other pines can be lifted 
with this bore-spade in a day by one forest laborer, 
the object being that each seedling should retain a 
small earth-ball, to facilitate the success of the mov- 
ing process. About ten thousand such seedlings are 
conveyed at a time in a forest wagon.* 

And yet, it must be confessed, our colony, with 
others in the Australian group, has accomplished but 
very little in any branch of sylvan maintenance, or 
forest culture, or the advance of industrial pursuits 
in our woodlands. 

One precursory step, however, has been made, and 
this is likely to be followed. I allude to the exten- 
sive gratuitous distribution of plants to public grounds 
in most parts of our colony — a distribution which has 
been in operation under the authority of Government 

* Since this lecture was delivered a short account of the bore-spade has 
appeared in the Melbourne Economist. 



EUCALYPTUS TKEES. 113 

from ground under my control for the last twelve 
years. I should think it not unlikely that this rais- 
ing of trees in masses will soon become also a special 
object of attention to the railway department, within 
its own areas, to re-supply its own wants. 

While a divine may withdraw some of his slender 
means, or a teacher may devote a share of his scanty 
earning, to inclose the ground of his dwelling, with 
a view of protecting a few trees on spots not really 
their own, we may be sure that the authorities do 
not wish to see hundreds of miles of railway fences 
long left unutilized, so far as planting of trees is con- 
cerned, particularly as such fences for this purpose 
afford much ready inducement. The average width 
of the railway area is two and a half chains, both on 
the Ballarat and Echuca lines, therefore far wider 
than that of European lines, and spacious enough for 
tree plantations, at least of some kinds. The length 
of the N. E. Eailway line will be one hundred and 
eighty-five miles, giving, consequently, three hundred 
and seventy miles' length for plantations. The slower- 
growing or less - lofty trees would there be on their 
place, such as our Red Gum-tree, the Iron-bark-tree, 
the W. A. Yarrah, the Blackwood-tree, the British 
Oak, the Quebec and Live Oak, the Cork Oak, the 
Elm, the Ash, the Totara, the Chestnut - tree, the 
Walnut, the Hickory, and many others which do not 
suffer from exposure ; for while the railway loan will 
last for an indefinite period, the railway material, 
such as the fences, sleepers, cars, will not last forever, 
and for these the wood might thus inexpensively 
become re -available in due time. Even where the 
railway space is narrow the operation of lopping the 



114 FOREST CULTURE AND 

planted trees along its lines might most readily be 
resorted to, and dangerous encroachments thereby be 
avoided. 

No one ever expected our most serviceable Railway 
Department to be burdened with the additional heavy 
task of entering on cultural pursuits, and I see no 
way of attaining the object here specially indicated 
unless purposely financial means and administrative 
organizations were provided by the State. 

In a special work (^Die Bepfiamung der Eisenbahn 
Damme, etc., by E. Lucas, second edition, 1870) the 
methods adopted in Germany for utilizing the railway 
dams, and the free space within railway fences, for 
wood and fruit culture, is amply discussed. "With 
the increasing value of culture-land this question of 
utilizing the spare ground along railways becomes 
more and more important. Where the space proves 
too narrow for rearing timber -trees. Hazel, Olives, 
Figs, Mulberries, Almonds, Osiers, Sumach, Myall, 
Ricinus, Blackberries, and such oiher lower trees or 
bushes as require no great attention, could doubtless 
be grown with profit. It might also be possible to 
establish advantageously permanent hedges of Haw- 
thorn, Opuntias, Osage Orange, and other not readily- 
inflammable and easily-managed bushes. Luzern and 
Sainfoin are much cultivated along continental rail- 
way-lines as fodder-herbs. 

In North America six hundred and fifty Walnuts 
or Hickories are planted on an acre ; though standing 
so close, Ihey are worth twelve shillings in twenty 
years for a variety of purposes. If wanted for heavy 
timber or nuts, they are thinned out so as to keep 
them twenty feet apart^ This may serve as an indi- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 115 

cation how spare places on railways might be utilized. 
Our regular and quick communication with California 
is giving now easy opportunity for importing nuts of 
the various American Hickories and Walnut-trees in 
quantity ; while of the ordinary Persian Walnut-tree 
seeds can already be obtained both here and in Tas- 
mania. Resinous Pine-trees may possibly increase 
any danger of conflagrations on railway-lines. Nur- 
series for sowing seeds of hardy utilitarian trees might 
at once be established on all the railway-stations at 
comparatively little cost. 

The only etfective public effort hitherto made to 
anticipate the necessities of forest culture consists in 
the planting of public reserves, parks, church-yards, 
school-grounds, cemeteries, and the area of many of 
our public buildings. The trading horticulturists 
have also largely aided in the importation and raising 
of foreign trees. 

In this eflfbrt, as already remarked, I took a promi- 
nent share, or perhaps, in many instances, it origi- 
nated from impulses or supports given by myself. 

Undoubtedlj', it was a primary object to cover the 
dismal barrenness of public grounds, to help in miti- 
gating thereby local dryness and heat, to afford shade 
and shelter, and to render many a barren spot a pleas- 
ing retreat. 

But this was not my only object. I had a second, 
and, to my mind, higher one in view. 

I wished that, locally, many nuclei for forest cult- 
ure should be formed ; that, within comparatively few 
years, seeds should almost everywhere become avail- 
able in masses from local tree-plantations ; and that 
thus efforts now made for parks and pleasure-grounda 



116 FOREST CULTURE AND 

should be enlarged for creating more or less extensive 
forests. 

These ideas may, perhaps, excite some surprise, 
yet I feel confident that they will and must be acted 
on before, in frightful truthfulness, the terrors of a 
woodless country in our zone, and settled with a fu- 
ture dense population, will be encountered. 

Should, however, my warnings fail to impress the 
public mind, then at least I have placed my views on 
record, and should not be held responsible for inter- 
ests, however vital, which the trust of my position 
must largely bring under my reflection and care. 

My effort in supplying merely material for raising 
local plantations all over the colony is, however, but 
the first step in a great national work of progress ; 
and I think we may reflect, not without some pride, 
that this public step was made in Australia here first 
of all. 

Haifa million of plants distributed by me to public 
institutions is, after all, but a trifle in a country that 
requires hundreds of millions of foreign trees, if it 
really is to advance to greatness and the highest pros- 
perity; a greatness that will be retarded in the same 
degree as attention to this, one of its most urgent in- 
terests, is deferred. 

The gifts of plants from the establishment under 
my control have provided the country with many a 
species that otherwise would not have existed here 
yet. Many of the magnificent or quick-growing Him- 
alayan and California Pines, not to speak of others, 
became through my hand first dispersed by thousands 
and thousands ; and although I may have incurred 
the displeasure of a few of the less thoughtful of my 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 117 

fellow-citizens, who wished the slender means of my 
young establishments appropriated for the ephemeral 
glory of floral displays, and who wished to sacrifice 
lasting progress to unproductive gaiety, yet I feel 
assured that the fair feelings of the inhabitants of 
Victoria in general will approve of the path of pre- 
dominant utility which I struck out for myself, and 
will respect the considerations which prompted me, in 
an equitable spirit toward town and country to attend 
in the first instance to pressing necessities, leaving 
the unnecessary or less useful for the exertions of a 
later time. 

If a census of the trees, which are to furnish us 
much seed for forest culture, could be held all over 
the colony, perhaps ray early efforts would be viewed 
with more justice and gratitude. 

" They did of solace treat, 
And bathe in pleasure of the joyous shade. 
Which shielded them against the broiling heat, 
And with green bough decked the gloomy glade." 

Spenbeb. 

In passing through a demolished forest, how sad- 
dening to us its aspect ! What mind, capable of high- 
er feelings, can suppress its sympathy, when we see 
stretched and withering on the ground a princely tree 
which but a few hours previously was an object of our 
admiration and a living monument of magnificence 
and glory. Do you think it had its enjoyment ? 
Does it send mere automatically, without animation 
or sensibility of any kind, its crown to the sunny sky, 
or drink joyless the pearly dew ? Do you think it 
closes its flowers but mechanically, or unfolds them 
again to imbibe light and genial warmth, absolutely 
without gladness or pleasure of any kind ? What is 



118 FOREST CULTURE AND 

vitality, and what mortal will measure the share of 
delight enjoyed by any organism ! Why should even 
the life of a plant be expended cruelly and wastefuUy, 
especially if, perhaps, this very plant stood already in 
youthful elegance, while yet the diprotodon (a wom- 
bat of the size of a bufifalo) was roaming over the for- 
est ridges encircling Port Phillip Bay — when those 
forest ridges on the very place of this city were still 
clothed in their full natal garb. Do not assume that 
I lean to transmutation doctrines ; or that to my un- 
derstanding there is an uninterrupted transit from 
the thoughts which inspire the mind to the faculties 
of animals and to the vitality of plants ! Yet that 
individual life, whatever it may be, which we often 
so thoughtlessly and so ruthlessly destroy, but which 
we never can restore, should be respected. Is it not 
as if the sinking tree was speaking imploringly to us, 
and when falling wished to convey to us its sadness 
and its grief? Like the nomadic wanderer of the 
Australian soil passed away before us, so I fear most 
of the traces of our beautiful and evergreen forest 
will be lost ere long. 

. . . " It is a goodly eight to see 
What heaven has done for this delicious land ; 
What flowers of fragrance blush on every tree, 
What glad'ning prospects o'er the hills expand ! 
But man would mar them with an impious hand." 

B^BOK. 

Beyond the plain utilitarian purposes of our forests 
(some of which I endeavored briefly to explain), and 
beyond all, the important functions which the woods 
have to perform in the great economy of Nature, they 
possess still other claims on our consideration, such as 
ought to evolve some feeling of piet^y to\yar4 th^oii 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 119 

It was in the forests where the poetic mind of Schil- 
ler, during his early boyhood,* first of all awoke to 
its deep love for nature ; where his strong sense for 
noble rectitude was formed ; where he framed his 
ideals of all that is elevated and great. This influ- 
ence of nature we see reflected in other lofty minds ; 
it leads true genius on its luminous path. Contrast 
the magnificence of a dense forest, before the de- 
structive hand of man defaced it, with the cheerless 
aspect of wide landscapes devoid of wooded scenery — 
only open plains or treeless ridges bounding the hori- 
zon. The silent grandeur and solitude of a virgin 
forest inspires us almost with awe — much more so 
than even the broad expanse of the ocean. It con- 
veys, also, involuntarily to our mind a feeling as if 
we were brought more closely before the Divine Pow- 
er by whom the worlds without end were created, 
and before whom the proudest human work must 
sink into utter insignificance. No settlement, how- 
ever princely — no city, however great its splendor, 
brilliant its arts, or enchanting its pleasures — can 
arouse those sentiments of veneration which, among 
all the grand works of nature, an undisturbed noble 
forest-region is most apt to call forth. I never saw 
truly happier homes of unmingled contentedness than 
in the seclusion of the woods. It is as if the bracing 
pureness of the air, the remoteness from the outer 
world, the unrestricted freedom from formal restraint, 
give to forest-life a charm for which in vain we will 
ever seek elsewhere. The forest inhabitant, as a rule, 
sees his life prolonged ; an air of peace on all sides sur- 
rounds him ; even with less prosperity, he is glad to 

ff Slf^ch o^the Li^e of Schiller, hj Sjp g^wftpd Bvjlwer Lyttop, p, 3, 



120 FOBEST CULTURE. 

break away from the turmoils and enmities into which 
elsewhere he is thrown by the bustle and struggle of 
the world, and to seek again this calm retreat in forest 
mountains. The existence of many an invalid might 
be prolonged and rendered more enjoyable, while 
many a sufferer might be restored to health, were he 
to seek timely the patriarchal simplicity of forest- 
life, and the pure air, wafted decarbonized in deli- 
cious freshness through the forest, ever invigorating 
strength, restoring exhilaration and buoyancy of his 
mind. In this young country new lines of railway 
are early to disclose some of the almost paradisic fea- 
tures of sylvan scenery, hitherto known to most of us 
only through the talent of illustrious landscape-paint- 
ers of this city. 

" To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood aud fell ; 

To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, 
Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, 

And mortal foot has ne'er or rarely been ; 
To climb the trackless mountain, all unseen. 

With the wild flock, that never need a fold ; 
Alone o'er steep and foaming falls to lean— 

This is not solitude : 'tis but to hold 
Converse with nature's charms, and view her stores untold." 

Btbon. 

I regard the forest as an heritage given to us by 
Nature, not for spoil or to devastate, but to be wisely 
used, reverently honored, and carefully maintained. 
I regard the forests as a gift, intrusted to any of us 
only for transient care during a short space of time, 
to be surrendered to posterity again as an unimpaired 
property, with increased riches and augmented bless- 
ings to pass as a sacred patrimony from generation t9 
generation, 



ON THE 



Application of Phytology 



INDUSTRIAL PURPOSES OF LIFE. 



A POPULAR DISCOURSE, 

Delivered at the Industrial Museum of Melbourne, on 
8d November, 1870. 

By Ferdinand von Mueller, C.M.G., M.D , Ph. D., F.R.S. 

Comm. Ord., Santiago, Kn. of Orders of Austria, France, PruBsia, Italy, 
Wner(emb(rg, Deumark, Mecklenburg, Gotha ; Government Botanist 
for Victoria, and Director of the Botanic Gardens at Melbourne. 



Called upon somewhat suddenly to choose the 
theme for the discourse of this evening, I made my 
choice unguardedly. I anticipated in my thoughts 
how, during the intended instructive recreation of 
this hour, the bearings of intimate botanic knowledge 
on many an industrial pursuit might readily be dem- 
onstrated by some impressive facts. But, on reflec- 
tion, I saw myself at once surrounded by so varied 
and bewildering a multitude of objects that to do jus. 
tice in a few words to my theme became a hopeless 
task. But while I offer this mere introductory ad- 
dress for a series of lectures on the phytologic section 



122 FOREST CtTLTtJRE AND 

of this institution, we might learn by a rapid glance 
over an area of knowledge singularly wide that only 
through many successive discourses, explaining sub- 
jects in detail, the student can become aware of the 
importance of phytologic knowledge in its relation to 
the industrial purposes of life. In all zones, except 
the most icy, mankind depends on plants for its prin- 
cipal wants. For our sustenance, clothing, dwellings, 
or utensils ; for our means of transit, whether by sea 
or land ; indeed, for all our ordinary daily require- 
ments, we have to draw the material largely, and 
often solely, from the vegetable world. The resources 
for all these necessities must be — it cannot be other- 
wise — manifold in the extreme, and singularly varied, 
again, in different climatic zones, or under otherwise 
modified conditions. 

To render, therefore, these vegetable treasures 
accessible to our fullest benefit, not only locally, but 
universally, must ever be an object of the deepest sig- 
nificance. Increasing requirements of the human 
races and augmented insight into the gifts of nature 
render now-a-days quite imperative the closest appli- 
ances of science to our resources and our daily wants. 

< < Omnis tellus optima ferat ! ' ' has become the motto 
of our Acclimatization Society ; or let me quote from 
Virgil : " Non omnis Jert omnia tellus, hie segetes, illio 
veniunt felicius uvae.'' Striving to unite the products 
of many lands, it suffices for us nowhere any longer 
to discriminate among these resources with merely 
crude notions ; but it becomes necessary to fix accu- 
rately, also, as far as plants are concerned, their indus- 
trial value, trace their origin, test their adaptability, 
investigate their productiveness, durability, qualities ; 



£tfCALYPTUS TREES. 123 

and to reduce all these inquiries to a sound basis by 
assigning to any species that position in the phyto- 
logic system by which it can be recognized by any one 
in any part of the globe. When the wants of phy- 
toglaphy are satisfied we have to call to aid chemistry, 
therapy, geology, culture, microscoptic investigation, 
pictorial art, and other branches of knowledge, to 
illustrate the respective value of the species, and the 
degree of its importance to any particular community. 
But in the discussions of one evening we can do no 
more than to touch succinctly only on a few of those 
vegetable objects most promising to our own colony 
for introduction, or most accessible among those indig- 
enous here ; we may glance on them, also, with a 
view of learning how their elucidation might practi- 
cally be pursued, and the knowledge thus gained be 
diffused. To aid in the latter aim the phytologic sec- 
tion in the Industrial Museum is to be established ; 
of the requirements of this section I shall say a few 
passing words. 

The products and educts of the vegetable world are 
immense ; any display of them in the order of sci- 
ence, as intended for this museum, must carry with 
it a permanency of impressive instruction which any 
other modes of teaching, sure to be more ephemerous, 
fail to convey. But these efforts at diffusing knowl- 
edge should be seconded by means not inadequate to 
a great object, and should be worthy of the dignity 
and name of this rising country. Who would not 
like to see the best woods of every country stored up 
here in instructive samples — nearly a thousand kinds 
alone to choose from, as far as our continent is con- 
cerned ? Who would not wish to have here at hand 



124 rOBEST CULTURE AND 

for comparison the barks, exudations, grains, drugs, 
as raw material ? Wlio would not desire to have 
ready access to a series of oils, whether pressed or 
distilled, whether from indigenous or imported plants ? 
Who would not have it in his power to compare the 
starches, dyes, casts of our luscious fruits, or the 
paper- material, tars, acids, coals of various kinds, 
fibers, alkaloids, and other medicinal preparations 
from various plants ? 

Why not place here a series of all the weapons and 
implements, traced accurately to their specific origin ? 
From such even in many instances we have learned, 
through keen observations of the first nomadic occu- 
pants of the soil, the use of many kinds of wood. All 
these objects, crude or prepared in the multitudinous 
way of their adaptations, ought to be accompanied, 
wherever necessary, by full explanatory designations, 
microscopic sections, and other means of elucidation ; 
while the periodic issue of descriptive indices, detail- 
ing still more copiously the derivation, uses, prepa- 
ration, and monetary value of such objects, will enable 
us to serve the full intentions for which this museum 
section has been formed. 

Lectures, however valuable, demonstrations, how- 
ever instructive, cannot alone form the path of exten- 
sive industrial education ; most minds, indeed, prefer 
to dwell tacitly on the objects of their choice, and 
muse quietly about the adaptability of any of them 
for operations or improvements in which they may 
be specially interested. 

How many inventions have received their first 
impulse from an institution such as we wish to form I 
Investigators, eminent in their profession, will doubt- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. l25 

less unite here, sooner or later, to bring to bear the 
sum of their knowledge, earned by a life-long toil, for 
giving vitality to that information which is to enter 
guidingly into the ordinary purposes of life. Thus, 
the happiness and prosperity of our fellow-men should 
be enhanced and exalted, and one of the loftiest ob- 
jects of our striving after truths be fulfilled. 

But the unassuming worker, conscious how far his 
own honest intentions advanced beyond his best re- 
sults, may well exclaim with Moore, in his soft melo- 
dies : 

" Ah ! dreams too full of saddening truth, 
Those luausions o'er the main 
Are like the hopes I built in youth, 
As sunny, and as vain! " 

Let us first take a glance at one of our innumerable 
forest glens. We see in the deep, rich detritus of 
rocks and fallen leaves, accumulated in past centu- 
ries some of the grandest features of the world' s veg- 
etation. Fern-trees* rise, at least exceptionally, to 
a height of eighty feet, higher, therefore, than any 
other parts of the globe, unless in Norfolk Island. 
Mammoth-Eucalypts abound, having, in elevation, 
rivals only in the Californian Sequoia Wellingtonia ; 
we may, indeed, obtain, from one individual tree, 
planks enough to freight almost a ship of the tonnage 
of the Great Britain. Todea Ferns, now sought in 
trade, occur in these recesses, weighing, deprived of 
their fronds, almost a ton ; and, if the Xanthorrhceas 
do resemble, as popularly thought, our once spear- 
armed natives, then the Todea stems bear certainly 
as justly a resemblance to large black bears, as has 
been comically contended. The Fan Palms,! though 

* Alsophila Australis, R. Br. 
t Corypha (Livistona) Australis, R. Br, 
7 



l2d FOREST CULTURE ANtJ 

only occurring in East Gipps Land, within our terri- 
tory, rank among the most lofty of the globe, though 
also among the most hardy. All this, in our latitude, 
seem astounding — but more, it demonstrates, also, 
great riches ; and I allude to it here only because I 
wished to show how a vegetation so prodigious points 
to the facilities of a natural, magnificent, industrial 
culture. The complex of vegetation is always an in- 
dicator of the soil and climate ; as such alone, plants 
deserve close study. In this instance it reveals un- 
told treasures, and yet, without phytographic knowl- 
edge they could never be understood, nor any intelli- 
gent appreciation of them be conveyed beyond the lo- 
cality. 

But can this grand picture of nature not be further 
embellished? Might not the true Tulip-tree, and the 
large Magnolias of the Mississippi and Himalaya, 
tower far over the Fern-trees of these valleys, and 
widely overshade our arborescent Labiatae ? * Might 
not the Andine Wax Palm, the Wettinias, the Gin- 
gerbread Palm, the .Jubea, the Nicau, the northern 
Sabals, the Date, the Chinese Fan Palms, and Rhapis 
flabelliformis, be associated with our Palm in a glori- 
ous picture? Or, turning to still more utilitarian ob- 
jects, would not the Cork-tree, the Bed Cedar, the 
Camphor- tree, the Walnuts and Hickories of North 
America, grow in these rich, humid dales, with very 
much greater celerity than even with all our tending 
in less genial spots ? Could not, of four hundred co- 
niferous trees, and three hundred sorts of Oaks, nearly 
every one be naturalized in these ranges, and thus 

» Rhododendron arboreum attains a height of thirty feet, while Rh. Fal- 
coueri rises to fifty feet, with leaves half a yard long. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. IS"? 

deals, select tanning material, cork, pitch, turpentine, 
and many other products be gained far more readily 
there than elsewhere in Victoria, from sources ren- 
dered our own? Ought we not to test in these val- 
leys how far the Sisso, the Sal, the Teak, may prove 
hardy, and as important here as our Blackwood and 
Eucalypts abroad? Or shall I enumerate all the orna- 
mental woods for furniture, machinery, instruments, 
which form an endless array of genera, and species 
might be chosen as introducable, indeed, from most 
lands ; many of these, perhaps, to find an asylum in our 
mountains before — like in St. Helena and other isolated 
spots — the remarkable and endemic trees are swept 
by man's destructive agency from the face of the 
globe ? Shall I speak in detail of the trees which 
yield dyes, and many medicinal substances ? If the 
Turkey Box -tree should continue the best for the 
wood-engraver, it would, in these valleys, assume its 
largest dimensions. I do not hesitate in affirming 
that out of ten thousand kinds of trees, which proba- 
bly constitute the forests of the globe, at least three 
thousand would live and thrive in these mountains 
of ours ; many of them destined to live through cen- 
turies, perhaps, not a few through twice a thousand 
years, as great historic monuments. Within the 
railway-fences, hitherto in this respect unused, trees 
might be raised as materials for restoring, locally, the 
sleepers, posts, and rails, prior to their decay. The 
principles of physiology, the revelations of the micro- 
scope, aud the results of chemical tests guide us, not 
only in our selections of the trees, but often teach us, 
beforehand, the causes and reasons of durability or de- 
cay. 



128 FOREST CULTURE AND 

The longevity of certain kinds of trees is marvel- 
ous. British Oaks are estimated to attain an age of 
two thousand years. The Walnut - tree, the Sweet 
Chestnut, and Black Mulberry-tree, live through many 
centuries, if cared for. Wellingtonias are found to be 
one thousand one hundred years old. Even the South 
European Elm, which, since the time of the Romans, 
has also made Britain its home, is known to stand six 
hundred years. Dr. Hooker regards the oldest Ce- 
dars yet existing, at Mount Lebanon, as two thousand 
five hundred years old. Historic records are extant 
of Orange-trees having attained an age of seven hun- 
dred years, yet aged trees continue in full bearing, 
under favorable circumstances ; a single tree is said 
to have yielded, in a harvest, twenty thousand oran- 
ges. Individual Olive - trees are also supposed to 
have existed ever since the Christian era. The Eu- 
ropean Cypress, the British Yew, the Ginkgo, and the 
Kauri afford other remarkable instances of longevity. 

The Date-Palm gratefully bears its rich crop of fruit 
for two hundred years. The Dragon-tree of Orotava 
is another familiar example of extraordinary longevi- 
ty. Here, in Victoria, the native Beech, and several 
Eucalypts are veritable patriarchs of the forests, and of 
a far more venerable age than is generally supposed. 

So much for the lasting of some of our work, to en- 
courage planting operations. 

If Cook, who stepped with the pride of an explorer 
on these shores precisely a century ago, could view 
once more the scene of his discoveries, he would be 
charmed by the sight of noble cities, and the happy 
aspect of rural industry ; but he would turn his eyes 
in dismay from the desolation and aridity which a 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 129 

merciless sacrifice of the native forests has already so 
sadly brought about — a sacrifice arising from an utter 
absence of all thoughts for the future. Ever since an- 
tiquity this work of forest destruction has gone on in 
every country, until, sooner or later, such reckless 
improvidence has been overtaken by a resentful Ne- 
mesis, in hindering the progress of national prosper- 
ity, and the comfort of whole communities. 

After lengthened periods of toil there partially arose, 
but partially only, what an early guardianship might 
have readily retained for mo^ countries. When I 
largely shared in the labors of establishing, for Aus- 
tralian trees, a reputation abroad, I certainly did, also, 
entertain a hope to awaken here, likewise, a univer- 
sal interest in the dissemination of an almost endless 
number of trees from the colder and subtropic girdles 
of the whole giobe. (Vide Phil. Inst, 1858, pp. 93 to 
109.) A few scattered trees are of no national mo- 
ment. We want the massive upgrowth of the Pitch- 
pines, just as on the Pine barrens of the United States ; 
we want whole forests of the Deal Pines, both cis and 
transatlantic ; we want over all our mountains the 
Silver Fir, already the charm of the ancients ; we 
want the Australian Red Cedar, scarcely any longer 
existing in its native haunts ; we want the Yarrah- 
tree, forest-like, as in West Australia ; we want the 
various elastic Ash-trees, which are so easily raised ; 
we want, indeed, no end of other trees, because the 
greater part of Victoria is ill - wooded ; because our 
climate is hot and dry ; because extensive coal layers 
we have not yet found. What practical bearing can 
all the teaching in this hall, all the display in this mu- 
seum, really exercise, if, finally, the artisan finds him- 



130 FOREST CULTURE AND 

self without an adequate and inexpensive material for 
his work? Annually, the timber' of one hundred and 
fifty thousand acres is cut away in the United States 
to supply the want for railway-sleepers alone. The 
annual expenditure there in wood, for railway build- 
ings and cars, is £7,600,000. In a single year the lo- 
comotives of the United States consume £11,200,000 
of wood. The whole wood industries of the United 
States represent, now, an annual expenditure of one 
hundred million sterling. There, forty thousand arti- 
sans are engaged alone in woodwork. Here, in Vic- 
toria, notwithstanding the activity of many saw-mills, 
we imported, only last year, timber to the value of 
£270,572 for our own use. As these remarks may 
find publicity, I have appended further notes on tim- 
ber-trees, eminently desirable for massive introduc- 
tion, but do not wish to exhaust by details the pa- 
tience of this audience. 

But it would be vain to expect that Europe and 
America will continue forever to furnish for us their 
timber. The constantly-increasing population and the 
augmented requirements of advancing industries will 
render no longer yonder woods accessible also to us 
before the century passes, because even in those north- 
ern countries the timber supply will then barely sat- 
isfy local wants. 

An idea may be formed of forest value when we 
enter on some calculations of the supply of timber or 
other products available from one of our largest Eu- 
calyptus-trees. ■ Suppose one of the colossal Eucalyp- 
tus amygdalina at the Black Spur was felled, and its 
total height ascertained to be four hundred and eighty 
feet, its circumfej'ei^ce toward the base qf the stem 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 131 

eighty-one feet, its lower diameter to be twenty-six 
feet, and at thelieight of three hundred feet its diam- 
eter six feet. Suppose only half the available wood 
was cut into planks of twelve inches width, we would 
get, in the terms of the timber trade, four hundred 
and twenty-six thousand seven hundred and twenty 
superficial feet at one inch thickness, sufiicient to cover 
nine and three fourths acres. The same bulk of wood 
cut into railway-sleepers, six feet by six inches by 
eight inches, would yield in number seventeen thou- 
sand seven hundred and eighty. Not less than a 
length of twenty-three miles of three-rail fencing, 
including the necessary posts, could be constructed. 
It would require a ship of about one thousand tonnage 
to convey the timber and additional firewood of half 
the tree ; and six hundred and sixty-six drayloads at 
one and one half tons would thus be formed to remove 
half the wood. The essential oil obtainable from the 
foliage of the whole tree may be estimated at thirty- 
one pounds ; the charcoal, suppose there was no loss 
of wood, seventeen thousand nine hundred and fifty 
bushels ; the crude vinegar, two hundred and twenty- 
seven thousand two hundred and sixty-nine gallons ; 
the wood-tar, thirty-one thousand one hundred and 
fifty gallons ; the potash, two tons eleven hundred 
weight. But how many centuries elapsed before un- 
disturbed nature could build up by the subtle process- 
es of vitality these huge and wondrous structures ! 

Some feelings of veneration and reverence should 
also be evinced toward the native vegetation, where 
it displays its rarest and grandest forms. It is la- 
mentable that in all Australia scarcely a single spot 



132 POEEST CULTURE AND 

has been secured* for preserving some relics of its 
most ancient trees to convey to posterity an idea of 
the original features of our primeval forests. Though 
it may appear foreign to my subject, I cannot with- 
hold also on this occasion an imploring word, more 
l)articularly when I notice land - proprietors in East 
Australia to hold not even sacred a single native 
]>anyan-tree, which required centuries for building 
its expansive dome and its hundreds of columnar pil- 
1 irs ; nor to allow a single Cj'^rtosia Orchid to continue 
with its stem trailing to the length of thirty feet, and 
to remain with its thousands of large, fragrant blos- 
soms, the pride of the forest. That very Cyrtosia 
gives a clue to the affinity and structure of other plants 
not nearer to us than Java ; and its destruction, with 
probably that of many others which the naturalist 
forever is now prevented to dissect, or the artist to 
delineate, or the museum custodian to preserve, will 
1)6 a loss to systematic natural history, also, forever. 
j\gain, in a spirit of Vandalism, a Fan-Palm, after a 
hundred years' growth, is no longer allowed to raise 
its slender stem and lofty crown in our own forests of 
(iipps Land, simply because curiosity is prompted to 
obtain a dishful of Palm-Cabbage at the sacrifice of a 
century's growth. 

Let it be remembered that the uncivilized inhabit- 
ants of many a tropical country know how to respect 
the original and not always restorable gifts of a boun- 
tiful Providence. They will invaribly climb the Palm- 

* On the Kiver Hastings somR magnificent dales bave been lately protected 
by the Government of New South Wales for tbe sake of the incomparably 
beautiful and grand native vegetation, an example deserving extensive imi- 
tation. The forests of the Bunya Araiicaria, occupying only a limited natu- 
ral area, are also secured against intrusion by the Goverpjnent, 



^ EUCALYPTUS TREES. 133 

tree to obtain its nuts or to plait its leaves ; so, also 
a resident in our forests might obtain from a grove 
of our hardy Palms, if still any are left in this land of 
Canaan, an annual income by harvesting the seeds as 
one of the most costly articles of horticultural export. 
Speaking of Palms, let me observe that the tall 
Wax Palm of New Granada (Ceroxlyon andicola) 
extends almost to the snow - line. It is needless to 
add that we might grow this magnificent product of 
andine vegetation in many localities of the country 
of our own adoption. Each stem yields annually 
about twenty-five pounds of a waxy, resinous coat- 
ing, which when melted together with tallow forms 
an exquisite composition for candles. Chamserops 
Fortunei, a Chinese Fan Palm of considerable height, 
is here hardy, like in South Europe ; so would be, prob- 
ably, the Gingerbread Palm (Hyphaene Thebaica). 
Of the value of some Palms we may form an appreci- 
ation when we reflect that Elais Guineensis, which 
at the end of this century should be productive in 
Queensland and North-west Australia, yields from 
the fleshy outer portion of its nut the commercially 
famed Palm - oil, prepared much in the manner of 
Olive-oil ; the value of this African Palm-oil import- 
ed in 1861 into England was two millions sterling, 
the demand for it for soap manufacture, and railway 
engines and carriages, being enormous.* The Chilean 
Jubaea or Coquito Palm grows spontaneously as fiir 
south as the latitude of Swan Hill, and is rich in a 
melliginous sap.f A Date Palm planted now would 
still be in full bearing two hundred years hence. 

*Tlie iiuport of Palm-oil into Britain during 1868 was nearly a million 
cwt. (960.050 cwt.). 

t Each tree yiclUb ninety gallons of sap at a time, used for tho jwreparation 
of palm-lioney. 

+7 



134 FOREST CULTURE AND 

When hopeful illusion steps beyond the stern reali- 
ties of the day, It cannot suppress a desire that en- 
lightened statesmanship will always wisely foresee the 
absolute requirements of future generations. The 
colonist who lives in enjoyment of his property near 
the ranges and sees a flourishing family growing up 
around him, asks ominously what will be the aspect 
of these forests at the end of the century, if the pres- 
ent work of demolition continues to go on ? He feels 
that though the forests not solely bring us the rain, 
through forests only a comparatively arid country can 
have the full advantage of its showers, as bitter ex- 
perience has taught generation after generation since 
Julius Caesar's time. The colonist reflects with appre- 
hension that while no year nor day, when passed into 
eternity, can be regained, no provision whatever is 
made for the coming population, in whose welfare, 
l)erhaps as the head of a family, and perhaps even 
bearing political responsibility, he is interested. He 
would gladly co-operate in the labors of a local Forest 
Board, just like members of Road Boards and Shire 
Councils enter cheerfully on the special duties alloted 
to their administration. His local experience would 
dictate the rules under which in each district the tim- 
ber and other products of the forest could be most 
lucratively utilized without desolation for the future ; 
and he would be best able to judge, and to seek advice 
how the yield of the forest could be advantageously 
maintained, and its riches methodically be increased. 
All this will weigh more heavily on his mind when he 
is cognizant that even in Middle Europe, in countries 
so well provided with coals, and of a much cooler 
Clime than ours, the extent of the forests is kept scru- 



eucajjYptus trees. 135 

pulously intact, and their regular yield remains secur- 
ed from year to year and from century to century. 
He would rest satisfied if only the trifling revenue 
of the forests could be applied by him and his neigh- 
bors to an inexpensive restoration of the woods con- 
sumed. He would delight in seeing the leading for- 
eign timber trees disseminated with our own Red 
Gum-tree, Red Cedars, Yarrahs or Black woods, not 
by hundreds but in time to come by millions, well 
aware that the next generations may either censure 
reproachfully the shortcomings of their ancestors, or 
may point gratefully to the results of an earnest and 
well-sustained foresight of future jvants. As a first 
step, at least in each district a few square miles should 
be secured for subsequent forest nurseries in the best 
localities, commanding irrigation by gravitation, and 
ready access also, before it is too late, and all such 
si)ots are permanently alienated from the Crown. 

Physical science must yet largely be called to our 
experimental aid before we can dispel the many crude 
notions in reference to the c ffect of forest vegetation 
on climate in all its details. It is thus a startling fact, 
as far as experiments under my guidance hitherto 
could elucidate the subject, that on a sunny day 
the leaves of our common Eucalypts and Casuarinas 
exhale a quantity of water several times, or even 
many times, larger than those of the ordinary or 
South European Elm, English Oak, or Black Poplar ; 
while from the foliage of our native Silver Wattle 
only half, or even less than half, the quantity of 
water is evaporated than from the Poplar or Oak. 
This degree of exlialation, so difi"ereut in various 
trees, depends on the number, position, and size of 



136 FOREST CULTURE AND 

their stoma ta, and stands in immediate correlation to 
tlie power of absorption of moisture. Besides, if the 
evaporation of Eucalyptus-trees is so enormous during 
heat, and if tlie often horizontal roots of these trees 
thus render soil around them very dry, in consequence 
of the copious conveyance of moisture to the air, 
they simultaneously, by the rapidity of their evapo- 
ration in converting aqueous to gaseous liquid, or 
water into vapor, cause a lowering of the temperature 
most important in our climate during the months of 
extreme heat, while their capability of absorbing 
moisture during rain or from humid air must be com- 
mensurately great. 

It is beyond the scope of this address to dwell fur- 
ther on facts like these ; but I was anxious to demon- 
strate by a mere example how much we have yet to 
learn by patient research before we will have recog- 
nized in all its details the important part which forest 
vegetation plays in the great economy of nature. 
Concerning forest culture, I would very briefly allude 
to an instance showing how, by the teachings of natu- 
ral science and thoughtful circumspection, the rewards 
of industrial pursuits may become surprisingly aug- 
mented. In the uplands of the Madras Presidency, 
an ingenious method has been adopted in gathering 
f lie harvest of Cinchona-bark, in recent very extensive 
plantations, by removing.it in strips without destroy- 
ing the cambium layer. Then, by applying moss to 
the denuded part of the stem, not only is the remov- 
ed portion of the bark renewed within a year, to the 
thickness of three j^ears' growth, but the protection 
of the tender bark against the influence of light and 
air allovfs nearly all the quinine and other alkaloids 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 137 

to remain retained in the cortical layer without de- 
composition, while in the ordinary three years' bark 
half or more of these principles is lost. 

Facts like these lead us to appreciate the important 
bearings of the natural sciences on all branches of in- 
dustry ; but they warn lis, also, to pause before we 
give our further consent to the unlimited and reckless 
demolition of our most accessible forest lands, on the 
maintenance of which so many of our industries de- 
I^end. 

Just as it required, even under undisturbed favor- 
able influences, centuries before our forest riches were 
developed to their pristine grandeur, so it will need, 
in the ordinary laws of nature, at least an equal 
lengthened period before we can see towering up again 
the sj'^lvan colosses, which eminently contributed to 
the fame of the natural history of this land — if, indeed, 
the altered physical condition of the country will ren- 
der the restoration of the trees on a grand scale possi- 
ble at all. 

Has science drawn in vain its isothermal girdles 
around the globe, or has the searching eye of the 
philosopher in vain penetrated geologic structure, or 
in vain the exploring phytographer circumscribed the 
forms ? Well do we know what and where to choose; 
botanic science steps in to define the objects of our 
choice, which other branches of learning teach us to 
locate and rear. 

The Tea would as thriftly luxuriate in our wooded 
valleys as in its native haunts at Assam, and yield a 
harvest far more prolific than away from the ranges. 
Indeed, we may well foresee that many forest slopes 
will be dotted in endless rows with the bushes of the 



138 FOREST CULTURE AND 

Tea, precisely as our drier ridges are verdant with the 
vine. Erytliroxylon-Coco, the wondrous stimulating 
plant of Peru, should be raised in the mildest and 
most sheltered forest glens, where the stillness of the 
air excludes the possibility of cutting frosts. Hop, 
cultivated as a leading industry in Tasmania since a 
quarter of a century, will also take a prominent place 
on the brooks of our mountains. Peru-bark trees of 
various kinds should in spots so favored be subjected 
to culture trials. How easily could any swampy de- 
pression, not otherwise readily of value, be rendered 
productive by allowing plants of the handf^ome New 
Zealand flax lily quietly to spread as a source for fu- 
ture wealth. How far the demand of material for 
industrial purposes may quickly exceed the supply 
may be strikingly exemplified by the fact that hun- 
dreds of vessels are exclusively employed for bringing 
the Esparto grass (not superior to several of our most 
frequent sedges) from Spain to England, to augment 
the supply of rags for the endless increasing require- 
ments of the paper-mills. Conversion of manifold 
material, even saw-dust, into paper, is carried on to a 
vast extent ; a multitude of samples placed here be- 
fore you will help to explain how wide the scope for 
paper material may extend. But the factories want 
material, not only cheap, but readily convertible, and 
adapted to particular working. 

In all these selections, a few glances through the 
microscope, and the result of a few chemical reactions 
taught in this hall, may at once advise the artisan in 
his choice. 

Phytologic inquiry is further to teach us rationally 
the nature of maladies to which plants are subject, 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 139 

just as it discloses even the sources of many of the 
most terrific and ravaging diseases of wliicli the 
human frame is the victim. The microscope, that 
marvelous tool for discovery, has become, also, the 
guardian of many an industry. The processes of 
morbid growth, or the development and diffusion of 
the minute organism, between which descriptive bota- 
ny knows how to discriminate, are thus traced out as 
the subtle and insidious causes which at times involve 
losses that count by hundreds of thousands in a single 
year, even in our yet small communities. But while 
the microscope discloses the form and development 
of the various minute organisms which cause, through 
the countless numbers of individuals, at times the 
temporary ruin of many branches of rural industry, it 
leaves us not helpless in our insight how to vanquish 
the invaders. In correctly estimating the limits of 
the specific forms, calling forth or concomitant with 
some of the saddest human maladies, phytography 
shares in the noble aim of alleviating human suff'er- 
ings, or restoring health and prolonging vital exist- 
ence. 

But it comes most pi'ominently within the scope of 
this Industrial Museum to delineate for the agricul- 
tural and forest section, in explanatory plates, the 
morbid processes under which crops and timber may 
succumb, and an industry be paralyzed or a country 
be verily brought to famine ; it devolves on us, also, 
simultaneously to explain the effect of remedial agents, 
such as sound reasoning from inductive science sug- 
gests or confirms. To array samples of all field 
products which our genial clime allows us to raise 
is doubtless the object of an instructive institution^ 



140 FOREST CULTURE AND 

more particularly in a young country, to which im- 
migration streams mainly from a colder zone ; but 
this display of increased capabilities, and of more 
varied products of a mostly winterless land, may 
entiee the inexperienced to new operations without 
guarding him against failures. I should even like to 
see tables of calculations in this Museum, from which 
could be learned the yield and value of any crop with- 
in a defined acreage and from a soil chemically exam- 
ined ; but from this I would regard inseparable a close 
calculation of the costs under which each particular 
crop can only be raised. Unfortunately, surprising- 
data are often furnished concerning the productive- 
ness of new plants of culture ; but it is as frequently 
forgotten that the large yield is, as a rule, dependent 
on an expenditure commensurately large. 

Among the most powerful means for fostering phy- 
tologic knowledge for local instructive purposes, that 
of forming collections of the plants themselves remains 
one of the foremost. No school of any great preten- 
sion should be without a local collection of museum 
plants, nor should any mechanics' institute be without 
such. It serves as a means of reference most faith- 
fully ; it need not be a source of expenditure j it 
might be gathered as an object of recreation ; it may 
add even to the world's knowledge. Through the 
transmission of numbered duplicate sets of plants to 
my office the accurate naming may be secured. * From 
such a normal collection in each district the inhabit- 

* Parcels of plants pressed and dried, aud afterward closely packed, can 
be inexpensively forwarded by post, and, by the excellence of the Australian 
postal arransemtnts, can be sent from distant stations of the interior, from 
whence botanical specimens of any kind, for ascertaining the nature and 
range of the siiecies, are most acceptable ; while full information ou such 
material will at once be reudered. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 141 

ant may learn to discriminate at once with exactness 
between the different timber-trees, the grasses, the 
plants worthy of ornamental culture, or any others 
possessing industrial or cultural interest. The saw- 
yer, as well as the trader in timber, may learn how 
ni'xny of the one liundred and forty Australian Eu- 
calypts occur within his reac^ — how phytograpliy 
designates each of them by a specific appellation ac- 
knowledged all over the globe. Phytologic inquiry, 
aided by collateral sciences, will disclose to him before- 
hand the rules for obtaining the wood at the best sea- 
sons, for selecting it for special purposes, for securing 
the best preservation. Phyto-chemistry will explain 
to him what average percentage of potash, oils, tar, 
vinegar, alcohol, tannic acid, etc., may be obtained 
under ordinary circumstances from each. He will 
understand, for instance, that the so-called Red Gum- 
tree of Victoria, the one so famed for the durability 
of its wood and for the peculiar medicinal astringency 
of its gum-resin, is widely different from the tree of 
that vernacular named in Western Australia j that it 
is wanting in Tasmania, yet that it has an extensive 
geographic range over the interior of our continent ; 
and that thus the experiences gained on the products 
of this particular species of tree by himself or others 
are widely applicable elsewhere. Through collections 
of these kinds .the thoughtful colonist may l>ave his 
attention directed to vegetable objects of great value 
in his own locality, of the existence of which he 
might otherwise not readily become aware. New 
trades may spring up, new exports may be initiated, 
new local factories be established. Phytographic 
works on Australian plants, now extant in many vol- 



142 FOREST CULTURE AND 

umes, can readily be attached and rendered explana- 
tory of such collections. A prize held out by the 
patrons of any school might stimulate the juvenile 
gatherer of plants to increased exertions ; his youth- 
ful mind will be trained to observation and reflection 
and the faculties of a loftier understanding will be 
raised. 

To the adult also, and particularly often to the 
invalid, new sources of enjoyment may thus be dis- 
closed. What formerly was passed by unregarded 
will have a meaning ; every blade over which he 
stepped thoughtlessly before will have a new inter- 
est ; and even what he might have admired will gain 
additional charm ; but while penetrating wonders he 
never dreampt of before he ought piously to ask who 
called them forth ? 

"Bright flowers shall bloom wherever we roam, 

A voice Divine shall talk in each stream ; 
The stars shall look like worlds of love, 

And this earth shall be one beautiful dream.'' 

Thos. Moore's Irish Melodies. 

AVhat one single plant may do for the human race 
is perhaps best exemplified by the Cotton-plant. The 
Southern States of North America sent to England in 
1860 nearly half a million tons of cotton (453,522 tons), 
by which means, in Britain alone, employment was 
given to about a million of people engaged in indus- 
tries of this fabric, producing cotton goods to the 
value of £121,364,458. From rice, which like cotton 
will mature its crop in some of the warmer parts of 
Victoria,* sustenance is obtained for a greater num- 
ber of human beings than from any other plant. In 

* Particularly if the hardy mountain rice of China and Japan is chosen , 
which required no irrigation. The ordinary rice has been grown sg far 
pprth as Ivombardy, 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 143 

the greater part of the Australian continent, where- 
ever water supply could be commanded, the rice 
would luxuriate. I found it wild in Arnheim's Land 
in 1855. Of sugar-cane the hardier varieties may 
within Victoria succeed in East Gipps Land and 
other warmer spots. Great Britain imported in 1863 
not less than five hundred and eighty-six thousand 
six hundred tons.* Even our young colony import- 
ed last year to the value of nearly a million sterling 
(£048,329). Think of the commerce in other vegeta- 
ble products, such as require in dilferent places our 
local fostering care in order to add still more to our 
resources. Of various tobaccos we imported into 
Victoria in 1869 (deducting exports) to the value of 
£83,788 J of wine, £84,687; of cereals, £781,250; of 
paper, £123,158. I will not enter on any remarks 
about sugar-beet, on which one of our fellow-colonists 
has lately compiled an excellent treatise. Of tea, in 
1865, Britain required for home consumption eighty- 
five millions of Ibs.f What a prospect for tea growth 
in Victoria, where this bush cares neither for the 
scorching heat of the Summer nor for the night-frosts 
of our lower regions ; whereas, in the forest glens of 
our country, Tasmania, and elsewhere, the Tea-bush 
would yield most prolific harvests. Test plantations 
for manifold new cultures were recommended by me 
years ago in one of my official reports to the Legisla- 

*" The total import of sugar into Britain was, during 18G8, six bundred and 
twenty-six thouKand three hundred and one tons ; during 1869, six hundred 
and five thousend one hundred and twenty-nine tons." 

t The total import of tea into Britain was — 

During 1865 121,156,712 lbs. 

1806 139,610,044 " 

1 867 128,028,726 ' ' 

" 1868 154,845,863 " 

(' J869 , , ,, 139,223,398 '» 



144 FOREST CULTURE AND 

ture ; one plantation for the desert, one for subalpine 
regions, one for tlie deep valleys of the woodlands. 
The two latter might be in close vicinity at the Black 
Spur, and thus within the reach of ready traffic. The 
outlay in each case would be modest indeed. What 
an endless number of new industrial plants might 
thus be brought together within a few hours' drive 
of the city, under all the advantages of rich soil, 
shelter, and irrigation ! What an attractive collection 
for the intelligent and studious might thus be per- 
manently formed. 

I will not weary this audience by giving a long 
array of names of any plants resisting alpine Winters, 
such as in our snow-clad higher mountains they would 
have to endure. We know that the Apple will live 
where even the hardy Pear will succumb ; both will 
still thrive on our alpine plateaus. The Larch, strug- 
gling in vain with the dry heat of our open lowlands, 
would be a tree of comparatively rapid growth near 
alpine heights. The Birch, in Greenland, the only 
tree in Italy ascending to six thousand feet, in Rus- 
sia the most universal, and there yielding for famed 
tanning processes its valued bark, is living — to quote 
the forcible remarks of an elegant writer — " is living 
on the bleak mountain sides from which the sturdy 
Oak shrinks with dismay." Add to it, if you like, 
the Paper -Birch, and a host of arctic, andine, and 
other alpine trees and bushes. Disseminate the Straw- 
berries of the countries of our childhood, naturalize 
the Blackberry of northern forest moors. The Ameri- 
can Cranberry-bush (Vaccinium macrocarpum), with 
its large fruits, is said to have yielded on boggy mead- 
ows, such as occupy a large terrain of the Australian 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. l45 

Alps, fully one hundred bushels on one acre in a year, 
worth so many dollars. If once established, such a 
plant would gradually spread on its own account for 
the benefit of future highland inhabitants. The Su- 
gar Maple would seek these cold heights, to be tapped 
when the Winter snow melts. For half a century it 
will yield its saccharine sap, equal to several pounds 
of sugar annually. 

Let us translocate ourselves now for a moment to 
our desert tracts, changed as they will likely be many 
years hence, when the waters of the Murray River, 
in their unceasing flow from snowy sources, will be 
thrown over the back plains, and no longer run en- 
tirely into the ocean, unutilized for husbandry. The 
lagoons may then be lined, and the fertile depres- 
sions be studded with the Date Palm ; Fig-trees, like 
in Egypt planted by the hundreds of thousands to in- 
crease and retain the rain, will then also have ame- 
liorated here the clime ; or the White Mulberry-tree 
will be extensively extant then instead of the Mallee 
scrub J not to speak of the Vine, in endless variety, 
nor to allude to a copious culture of Cotton in those 
regions. To Fig-trees and Mulberry - trees I refer 
more particularly, because it must be always in the 
first instance the object to raise in masses those utili- 
tarian plants which can be multiplied with the ut- 
most ease, and without any special skill, locally, and 
which, moreover, as in this case, would resist the dry 
heat of our desert clime. When recommending such 
a culture for industrial pursuits, it is not the aim to 
plant by the thousand, but by the million. Remem- 
ber, also, that a variety of the Morus Alba occurs in 
Aff'ghanistan, with a delicious fruit ; and that the im- 



14G FOREST CULTURE AND 

portation of Figs into Bi'itain alone, from countries in 
climate alike to large tracts of Victoria, has been of 
late years about one thousand tons annually. What 
the Fig-tree has effected for rainless tracts of Egypt 
is now on historic record. 

I have spoken of horticultural industries as not al- 
together foreign to this institution — indeed, as repre- 
senting a rising branch of commerce. Were I to en- 
ter on details of this subject the pages of this address 
might swell to a volume. But this I would mention, 
that in our young country the manifold facilities for 
rearing exotic plants in specially selected and adapted 
localities could only as yet receive imperfect consid- 
eration. We have, however, ample opportunities of 
selecting genial spots for the growth of such singular 
curiosities as the Flytrap plant (Dionsea Muscipula), 
and the Pitcher-plants (Sarracenias) of the bogs and 
swamps of the pine barrens and savannahs of Caroli- 
na, if we proceed to moory portions of our springy 
forest land. There is no telling, too, whether the 
Pitcher-plants of Khasya and China (species of Ne- 
penthes) could not readily be grown and multiplied in 
similar localities, and the hardier of grand Epiphytes 
among the orchids, such as the subalpiue Oncidium 
Warczewickyi, of Central America, which might 
readily be reared in our glens by horticultural enter- 
prise, together with all the hardier Palms which mod- 
ern taste has so well adopted for the ready decoration 
of dwelling-rooms. 

Such plants as the Beaucaruea recurvata of Mexico, 
with its five thousand flowers in a single panicle, and 
the hardier Vellozias, from the bare mountain regions 
of Brazil, would endure our open air ; while the in- 



fetJCAliYPTUS TEtES. 147 

humerable South African Heaths, Stapelise, the Me- 
sembryanthema, Pelargonia, lily-like plants, and many 
others, once the pride of European conservatories, 
can, with increased sea traffic, now gradually be in- 
troduced as beautiful objects of trade into this coun- 
.try, where they need no glass protection. It leads 
too far to speak of the still more readily accessible 
numerous showy plants of South-west Australia, but 
among which, as a mere instance, the gorgeous Ani- 
gozanthi, the lovely Stylidia, the gay Banksise, and 
the fragrant Boronias may be mentioned. 

Before leaving this topic, I may remind you that 
many esculent plants of foreign countries are deserv- 
ing yet of test culture, and, perhaps, general adop- 
tion in this country. The Dolichos sesquipedalis, of 
South American, is a bean, cultivated in France on 
account of its tender pod. The Arracha esculeuta, an 
umbellate from the cooler mountains of Central Ameri- 
ca, yields there, for universal use, its edible root. 
The climbing Chocho, of West India (Sechium edule), 
proved hardy in Madeira, and furnishes a root and 
fruit both palatable and wholesome. Vigna subter- 
ranea is the Earth Nut of Natal. The Taro of Tahiti 
(Calocasi macrorrhiza), though perfectly enduring our 
lowland clime, is, as yet, with allied species, but lit- 
tle cultivated — neither the Soja of Japan (Glycine 
Soja), nor the Caper of the Mediterranean. The Sea- 
kales (Crambe Maritima and C. Tatarica) might be 
naturalized on our sandy shores. 

Regarding fibres, much yet requires to be effected 
by capitalists and cultivators, to turn such plants as 
the Grasscloth shrub, which I distributed for upward 
of a dozen years, to commercial importance for ffjcto- 



148 FOREST CULTURE AND 

ries. A kind of Jute (Corchorus olitorius) succe'eds 
as far north as the Mediterranean, and grows wild 
with the Sun Hemp ( Crotalaria juncea ) in tropical 
Australia ; the latter plant comes naturally almost 
to the boundaries of our colony. A Melbourne rope- 
fiictory offers £36 for the ton of New Zealand Flax, ' 
and can consume six tons per week. Hemp, used 
since antiquity, produces, along with its fibre, the 
Hypnotic Churras. England imported, in 1858, 
Hemp, to the value of more than £1,000,000.* This 
may suffice to indicate new resources in this direction. 
For Sumach our country offers, in many places, the 
precise conditions for its successful growth, as con- 
firmed by actual tests. Tannic substances, of which 
the indigenous supply is abundant and manifold, 
would assume still greater commercial importance by 
simple processes of reducing them to a concentrated 
form. How on any forest river might not the Fil- 
bert-tree be naturalized ; on precipitous places, among 
rocks, it would form a useful jungle, furnishing, be- 
sides, its nuts, the material for fishing-rods, hoops, 
charcoal crayons, and other purposes. From a single 
forest at Barcelona sixty thousand bushels are obtain- 
ed in a year. (For these and many other data brought 
before you in this lecture you may refer further, most 
conveniently, to a posthumous work of the great Pro- 
fessor Lindley, Treasury of Botany, edited by Mr. 
Th. Moore, with the aid of able contributors.) Even 
the Loquat would attain in our forest glens the size 
of a fair, or even large tree. 

* The import of Hemp and Jute into Britain during 1868 was three mil- 
lion two hundred and eighty-oue thousand two hundred and sixty-eight 
hundred weight ; during 1SC9, three million Ave hundred and fifty-one 
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight hundred weight. The undressed 
Hemp imported in 1868 was valued at £2,022,419. 



» EUCALYPTtfS TRfiiJS. 149 

Osiers and other willows used for basket-work, for 
charcoal, or for the preparation of salicine, might line 
any river banks, quite as much for the sake of shade 
and consolidation of the soil as for their direct utili- 
tarian properties. In the forest ranges any dense line 
of Willows and Poplars will help to check the spread 
of the dreadful conflagrations in wliich so much of the 
best timber is lost, and through which the tempera- 
ture of the country is for days heightened to an intol- 
erable degree far beyond the scenes of devastation, 
while injuries are inflicted far and wide to the labors 
in the garden or the field. In the most arid deserts 
the medicinal Aloes might readily be established, 
to yield by a simple process the drug of commerce. 
Gourds of half a hundred weight have been obtained 
in Victoria, and show what the plants of the Melon 
tribe might do here, like in South Africa, for eligible 
spots in the desert land. Among the trees for those 
arid tracts, the glorious Grevillea robusta, with its in- 
numerable trusses of fiery red, and its splendid wood 
for staves, is only one of the very many desirable ; 
just as in the oases the Carob-tree will live without 
water, uninjured, because its deeply-penetrating roots 
render it fit to resist any drought. But it may be said 
that much that I instance is well known and well 
recorded — so, doubtless, it is, in the abstract — but va- 
riety requires to be distinguished from variety, spe. 
cies from species, and their geography, internal struc- 
ture and components need carefully to be set forth, 
before any industry relating to plants can be raised 
on sound ground in proper localities, and be brought 
to its best fruitfulness. 

Even a pond, a streamlet — how, with intelligent 



150 FOREST CULTURE AJffi 

foresight, may it be utilized and rendered lucrative 
to industry ! The Water Nuts,* naturally distributed 
through large tracts of Europe and Asia, aflford at 
Cashmere alone, for five months in the year, a nutri- 
tious and palatable article of food for thirty thousand 
people. Can the Menyanthes not be made a native 
here — one of the loveliest of water-plants, one of the 
best of tonics ? The true Bamboo, which I first prov- 
ed hardy here, used for no end of purposes by the 
ingenious Chinese — can we not plant it here, at each 
dwelling, at each stream, a grateful yielder to indus- 
trial wants, not requiring itself any care — an object 
destined to embellish whole landscapes ? An Arun- 
dinaria Bamboo from Nepal (A. falcata) proved very 
tall and quite hardy, even in Britain j and yet taller 
is the Mississippi Arundinaria (A. macrosperma) — 
indeed, rivaling in height the gigantic Chinese or 
Indian Bamboo. 

Imagine how there might arise on the bold rocky 
declivities of the Grampians the colossal columns 
of the Cereus giganteus of the extra-tropic Colorado 
regions — huge candelabras of vegetable structure, 
which would pierce the roof of our museum hall if 
planted on the floor, and would be as expansive in 
width as the pedestal of the monument consecrated 
to our unfortunate explorers. Picture to yourselves 
an Echinocactus Visnago of New Mexico, lodged in 
the wide chasm of our Pyrenees, one of these mon- 
sters weighing a ton, and expanding into a length of 
nine feet, with a diameter of three feet. " Think of 
such plants mingled with the Canarian Dragon-tree, 
one of which is supposed to have lived from our 

* Several species of Trapa. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 151 

Redeemer's time to this age, because four centuries 
effected on tliese Giant Lilies but little change. 
Welwitchia here, like in rainless Damaraland, might 
grow in our desert sands as one of the most wonder- 
ful of plants, its only pair of leaves being cotyledo- 
nous and lasting well - nigh through a century. Or 
associate in your ideas with these one of the medici- 
nal Tree Aloes of Namaqua, or one of the Poison Eu- 
phorbias, never requiring pluvial showers (Euphorbia 
grandidens), some as high as a good-sized two-storied 
dwelling-house ; transfer to them also Cereus senilis, 
thirty feet high, which, with all its attempts to look 
venerable, only suceeds to be grotesque ; add to these 
extraordinary forms such Lily-trees as the Fourcroya 
longseva, with a stem of forty feet and an inflorescence 
of thirty feet, whereas Agave Americana, Agave 
Mexicana and allied species, while they quietly pass 
through the comparatively short space of time allotted 
to their existence, weave in the beautiful internal 
economy of their huge leaves the threads which are 
to yield the tenacious Pita-cords, so much in quest for 
the rope-bridges of Central America. 

Some of the Echinocacti extend as far south as 
Buenos Ayres and Mendoza, and would introduce 
into many arid tracts of Victoria, together with the 
almost numberless succulents of South Africa, a great 
ornamental attraction, which horticultural enterprise 
might turn to lucrative account ; just like our native 
showy plants will become objects of far higher com- 
mercial importance than hitherto has been attach- 
ed to them. The columns of Cereus Peruvianus rise 
sometimes to half a hundred feet j some Cactese are 
in reality the vegetable fountains of the desert. Such 



152 i^OREST CULTURE ANt) 

plants as Echinocactus platyceras, with its fifty thou- 
sand thorns and setse, should be cultivated in our open 
grounds for horticultural trade, whereas the Cochineal 
Cacti (Opuntia Tuna, O. coccinellifera and a few other 
species), might well be still further distributed here, 
in order that food may be available for the cochineal 
insects when other circumstances in Australia will 
become favorable for the local production of this cost- 
ly dye. 

These are a few of many instances which might be 
adduced to demonstrate how the landscape pictures 
of Victoria might be embellished in another century, 
and new means of gain be obtained from additional 
manifold resources. 

But while your thoughts are carried to other zones 
and distant lands, let us not lose sight of the reason 
for which we assembled, namely, to deal with utilita- 
rian objects and the application of science thereon. 
All organic structures, however, whether giants or 
pigmies, whether showy or inconspicuous, have their 
allotted functions to fulfill in nature, are destined to 
contribute to our wants, are endowed with their spe- 
cial properties, are heralding the greatness of the Cre- 
ator. But here in this hall I would like to see dis- 
played by pictorial art the most majestic forms in 
nature, were it only to delineate for the studious the 
physiognomy of foreign lands, irrespective of any 
known industrial value of the objects thus sketched. 
The painter's art in choosing from nature does impress 
us most lastingly with the value and grandeur of its 
treasures. Each plant, as it were, has a history of 
discovery of its own ; who would not like to trace it ? 
And this again brings us face to face with those who 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 153 

carried before us the torch of scientific inquiry into 
the dark recesses of mystery, and shed a flood of light 
on perhaps long-concealed magnificence and beauty. 
The youth, aroused to the sublime feeling of wishing 
at least to follow great men in independent research- 
es, may be animated if in a hall like this each divis- 
ion were ornamented with the portraits of the fore- 
most of those discoverers who through ages advanced 
knowedge to the standard of the present day. 

" Deeds of great men aU remind us 
We can make our lives sublime. 
And departing leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time. 
" Though oft depressed and lonely, 
Our fears are laid aside, 
If we remember only 
Such also lived and died. 
"Learn from the grand old masters, 
Or from the bard sublime. 
Whose distant footsteps echo 
Tbrnugh the corridor of time." 

LoNQFEIiLO-W. 

Discovery proceeds step by step. Commenced by 
original thinkers, enlarged by sedulous experimenters, 
fostered by the thoughtful portion of the community, 
and by any administration of high views, it is util- 
ized by well-directed enterprise, and marches onward 
steadily in its progress. Guttenberg and his collabo- 
rators gave us the printing art, which has done more 
to enlighten the world than all other mechanisms 
taken together ; and though four centuries have alter- 
ed much in the speed and cost of producing prints, 
they have not materially changed the forms of this 
glorious art, as the beautifully-decorated pages of the 
earliest printed Bibles testify. Thus we have reason 
to be yet daily grateful for this invaluable gain from 
the genius of days long passed, 



1^4 FOREST CULTURE AND 

Thoughtless criticism is but too often impatient of 
success, and demands results premature and unreason- 
able. Incompetent and perversive censure may even 
carry the sway of public opinion — misleading, and 
misled ; and, still worse, organized tactics may apply 
themselves, for sinister purposes of their own, to dis- 
turb the quiet work of the discoverer, mar the results 
of his labors, or paralyze the vitality of research, not 
understanding, or not wishing to understand, its di- 
rection or its object. 

And yet, should we have no foith in science, wheth- 
er it reveals to us the minutest organisms in a perfec- 
tion unalterable, * or the grandest doctrines of truth, 
sure ever to bear on human happiness and the peace 
of our soul ; should we have no faith in science, 
whether it unravels the metallic treasures of the depth 
and the coals of the forests of bygone ages, or by eter- 
nal laws permits us to trace the orbits of endless ce- 
lestial worlds through space ; no faith, if it allows us 
through spectroscopic marvels to count unerringly the 
billions of oscillations of each ray of dispersed light 
within a second ; or if it discloses the chemism of 
distant worlds, and therewith an applicability of re- 
search, both tellural and sidereal, ever endless and 
inexhaustible. Science, as the exponent of God-like 



* As an iustauce of the marvelous conjplexity, and yet exquisite perfection 
of the minutest creatures, the organ of vision in insects may he adduced. 
Most careful observers have ascertained that the eyes of very many insects 
are compound, contain numerous eyelets ; each of these provided with a 
distinct cornea, lens, iris, puj^il, and a whole nervous api^ratus. In our 
despised ordinary house-fly may he counted about four thousand of these 
most subtle instruments of vision; in some dragon-flies about twelve thou- 
sand. Reliable microscopists have counted even seventeen thousand three 
hundred and tifty-five in a kind of butterfly, while in the beetle genus mor- 
della these most delicate eyelets have been found to rise to the almost incred- 
ible number of twenty - five thousand and eighty - eight. — [Frovi Th- Mym, 
Jones.) 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 155 

laws, draws us in deepest veneration to tlie power 
divine, Ttiat is true science ! 

" As into tints of sevenfold ray 

Breats soft the silvery shimmering white ; 
As fade the sevenfold tints away, 

And all the rainbow njelts in light ; 
So from the Iris sportivG call 

Each magic tint the eye to chain, 
And now let truth unite them all, 
And light its single stream regain.' ' 

— Bulwer Lytlon,from Schiller. 

If a series of experiments witli coloring principles 
ftom coal-tar and bituminous substances led to the 
invention of the brilliant aniline colors, and brought 
about an almost total change in many dye processes, 
how many new wonders may not be disclosed to tech- 
nology by the rapid strides of organic chemistry ? 
As is well-known, three or four chemic elements are 
only engaged in forming numberless organic com- 
pounds, by a slight increase or decrease or rearrange- 
ment of the atomic molecules, constructing, for in- 
stance, from these three or four elements, ever pres- 
ent and ever attainable, the deadly hydrocyanic acid, 
the terrible atropin, or the dreadful aconitin at one 
time ; or at another time, harmless ammonia com- 
binations universally used for culinary and other pur- 
poses of daily life. Our wood-tars, we may remem- 
ber, are left, as yet, almost unexamined as regards 
their chemic constitutents. Few of our timbers have 
been chemically analyzed ; few other of our vegetable 
products are as yet accurately tested. What an end- 
less expanse for exploration does organic chemistry 
thus offer us ! We are called on, among a thousand 
things, to trace out similar mutual relation and coun- 
teraction of such extremely powerful plants as the 



156 FOREST CULTURE AND 

Belladonna and Calabar Bean. Here medicine, chem- 
istry, and phytology go hand in hand. How, again, 
is any analysis of the chemic constituents of any 
plant, for cultural purposes or otherwise, to be ap- 
l»lied, unless we command a language of phytographic 
expressions which will name with never-failing pre- 
cision the object before us, and give to its elucidation 
value and stability ? 

We may speak chemically ot potash plants, lime 
plants, and so forth ; we may wish to define thereby 
the direction of certain industrial pursuits, and we 
may safely thereby foretell what plants can be raised 
profitably on any particular soil or with the use of 
any particular manure ; but how is this knowledge to 
be fixed without exact phytologic information, or how 
is the knowledge to be applied, if we are to trust to 
vernacular names, perplexing even within the area 
of a small colony, and useless, as a rule, beyond it ? 
Colonial Box-trees by dozens, yet all distinct, and 
utterly unlike Turkey Box ; colonial Myrtle, without 
the remotest resemblance to the poef s myrtle ; colo- 
nial Oaks, analogous to those Indian trees which as 
Casuarinse were distinguished so graphically by Rumpf 
two hundred years ago, but without a trace of simi- 
larity to any real Oak — afford instances of our confused 
and ludicrous vernacular appellations. A total change 
is demanded, resting on the rational observations and 
deductions which science already has gained for us. 
Assuredly, with any claims to ordinary intelligence, 
we ought to banish such designations, not only from 
museum collections, but also from the dictionary of 
the artisan. 

One of the genera ot Mushrooms, certainly the 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 157 

largest of them (Agaricus), contains alone about a 
thousand species, well distinguished from each other* 
a good many even occurring in this country. For the 
practical purposes of common life it becomes an object 
to distinguish the many wholesome from the multi- 
tude of deleterious kinds, or the circumstances under 
which the harmless sorts may become hurtful. In 
France the cultivation of mushrooms in under-ground 
caverns has become a branch of industry not altogeth- 
er unimportaut. How, in other instances, is many a 
culinary vegetable to be distinguished from the poi- 
son herb without the microscope of the phytographer 
being applied to dissections, or without the language 
of science recording the characters ? How many a 
life, lost through a child's playfulness, or through the 
unacquaintance of the adult, even with the most ordi- 
nary objects of knowledge among plants, might have 
been saved, even in these times of higher education, 
if phytologic knowledge was more universal ! The 
species of fungi which can be converted into pleasant, 
nutritious food are far more numerous than popularly 
supposed, but for extending industries in this direc- 
tion botanic science must assume the guardianship. 
In a technologic hall like this I should like to see 
instructive portraits also of all the edible and noxious 
plants likely to come within the colonist's reach. 

Among about one thousand kinds of Fig-trees which 
(so Mons. Alphonse de CandoUe tells me), through 
Mons. Bureau's present writings for the Prodromus, 
are ascertained to exist, only one yields the fig of our 
table, only one forms the famed sycamore fig, planted 
along 80 many roads of the Orient ; only one consti- 
tutes our own FicKS macrophylla, destined, in its 

*8 



158 FOKEST CULTURE AND 

unsurpassed magnificence, to overshade here our palh- 
•vvays. How are these thousands of species of Ficus, 
all distinct in appearance, in character, and in uses — 
how are they to be recognized, unless a diagnosis of 
each becomes carefully elaborated and recorded, head- 
ed by a specific name ? 

Without descriptive botany all safe discrimination 
becomes futile. To bear our share in building up an 
universal system of specific delimitation of all plants 
is a task well worthy of the patronage of an intelligent 
and high-minded people. The physician is thereby 
guided to draw safe comparisons in reference to the 
action of herbs and roots which he wishes to prescribe, 
as available from native resources. Thus it was 
through Victorian researches that not only the -close 
affinity of Goodeniacese to the order of Gentianese was 
brought to light, but simultaneously a host of herbs 
and shrubs of the former order gained for therapeutic 
uses. When once it was ascertained that the so- 
called Myrtle-tree of our forest moors was a true Beech 
the artisan then also found offered to him a timber of 
great similarity to that of the Beech forests of his 
British home. 

Of the grass genus Panicum we know the world 
possesses, according to a recent botanic disquisition, 
about eight hundred and fifty species, all more or less 
nutritive. But one only of these is the famous Coa- 
pin of Angola (Panicum spectabile), one of the War- 
ree (Panicum miliaceum), one the Bhadlee (Panicum 
pilosum), one the Derran (P. frumentaceum). We 
might dispense, perhaps, as far as these few are con- 
cerned, with their scientific appellations, though not 
even the mere task of naming has become therewith 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 159 

easier, and no information whatsoever of their char- 
acteristics has been gained. But if we wish to refer 
to any of the many liundred other species of Panicum, 
in what way are we to express ourselves if even their 
vernacular names could be collected from at least a 
dozen of languages, and impressed on any one's mem- 
ory ? They are, as may readily be imagined, very 
different indeed in their special nutritiveness, degree 
of endurance, and length of life. Of one hundred and 
forty species of Bromus only one is the Prairie Grass, 
which has attained already a great celebrity as a pas- 
ture grass naturalized in this country ; and it is only 
one other Bromus, among the many nutritious kinds, 
which carries the palm as the most fattening fod- 
der-grass for cold, marshy pastures, and gradually, 
through depasturing, suppresses completely all other 
grasses and weeds ; so it is proved on the marsh- 
lands of Oldenburg. This Bromus (B. secalinus), as 
far as I am cognizant, is nowhere as. yet economically 
cultivated in Victoria. 

Nothing would be easier than to commence dissem- 
inating a number of the best grasses in addition to 
those already here ; for instance, the Canadian Rice- 
Grass (Hydropyrum esculentum) for our swamp-lands. 
Their nutritive value must be tested by analysis and 
other experiments, just like that of the Saltbushes of 
the Murray Flats. Hence ample scope for the exer- 
tions of science also in this direction. 

In Cotta's celebrated publishing establishment at 
Stuttgart a most useful work is issued by my friend, 
Prof. Noerdlinger, on the structure of timber of vari- 
ous kinds, illustrated by microscopic sections of the 
wood itself; for the latter fascicles I furnished some 



160 FOREST CULTURE AND 

material from this colony. The work should be ac- 
cessible in this Museum to all interested in wood- 
work. 

How much we have yet to learn of the value of our 
forest products is instanced when we now know from 
Spanish physicians to combat ague with Eucalyptus- 
leaves, or when Count Maillard de Marafy, from ex- 
periments instituted this year in Egypt, announced 
to us that Eucalyptus-leaves can be usecl as a substi- 
tute for Sumach. (Egypte Agricole, 1870.) 

Already, in the earlier part of this lecture, I spoke 
of the Peru Bark plants ; but the Cinchonas are not 
all of the same kind. Some endure a lower degree 
of temperature than others, some are richer in qui- 
nine, others richer in cinchonine, others in quinoi- 
dine ; and this again is much subject to fluctuations 
under different effects of climate and soil. Great er- 
rors may be committed, and have been committed, 
by adopting from among a number of species the least 
valuable, or one under ordinary circumstances almost 
devoid of alkaloid, though a representative of the 
genus cinchona, and not unlike the lucrative species. 
When calculations in India prognosticate the almost 
incredible annual return of one hundred and thirty 
per cent, after four years, on the orighaal outlay for 
Cinchona plantation, it is supposed that the conditions 
for this new industrial culture are to the utmost favor- 
tjible. That one of the best species did not thrive 
there at all in proportion to expectations is owing, in 
my opinion, to geologic conditions. The Cinchonas 
before you, reared in soil fronj our Fern-tree gullies, 
I intended to have tested for the percentage of their 
r.lkaloids prior to this evening ; but the timely per- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 161 

formance of this investigation was frustrated. I 
think that I have proved the hardiness or adaptabil- 
ity of these important plants for the warm Palm val- 
leys of East Gipps Land, as many indigenous plants 
from that genial spot are quite as much, if not more, 
susceptible to the night -frosts of our city than the 
Cinchonse, if harsh, cutting winds are kept from the 
latter. ' But as yet I am unacquainted with the likely 
results of remunerative Cinchona cultivation within 
the boundaries of this colony, as far as such depends 
on the constituents of the soil. That inquiries of this 
kind are not mere chimeras may be conceded after 
an explanation of this kind for the benefit of future 
technology. Geology, one of the brightest satellites 
which rotate around the sun of universal science, con- 
tinues to send its lustre into the darkness which yet 
involves so many of the great operations in tellurian 
nature. Further insight into the relation of this dis- 
cipline of science to vegetable physiology is certain 
to shed abundance of light also on many branches of 
applied industry. The causes why the Iron-bark 
trees of our auriferous quartz ridges differ so material- 
ly from the conspecific tree of alluvial flats can only 
be explained geologically. So it is with the narrow- 
leaved Eucalyptus amygdalina on open stony decliv- 
ities as compared with the broad-leaved Eucalyptus 
fissilis, which in such gigantic dimensions towers up 
from our deep forest valleys. But all this has an im- 
portant bearing on technological exertions in manifold 
directions. The timber chosen by the artisan from a 
wrong locality may impair the soundness of a whole 
building ; or a factory may prove not lucrative simply 
because it is placed on a wrong spot for the best raw 
material. 



162 FOREST CULTURE AND 

A thousand of other industrial purposes might yet 
be served by a close knowledge of plants. So the 
designer might choose patterns far more beautiful 
from the simple and ever-perfect beauty of nature than 
he gains from distorted forms copied into much of our 
tapestry ; thus a room, now-a-days, as a rule, decorat- 
ed with unmeaning and often, as far as imitation of 
nature is concerned, impossible figures, might become, 
geographically or phytographically, quite instructive. 
If here the founders of territorial estates — some, per- 
haps, as large as the palatinates of the Middle Ages — 
should wish to perpetuate the custom of choosing a 
symbol for family arms, they — as the Highland clans, 
who adopted special plants of their native mountains 
for a distinguishing badge — might select, as the an- 
cestral emblem, the flowers of our soil, destined, per- 
haps, to be traced, not without pride, by many a 
lineage through a hundred generations. 

Precise knowledge of even the oceanic vegetation, 
in its almost infinite display of forms, offers not mere- 
ly the most delicate objects for design, but brings be- 
fore us its respective value for manure, or the impor- 
tance of various herbage on which fishes will browse ; 
while such marine weeds may as well be transferred 
from ocean to ocean, as ova of trout have been brought 
from the far north to these distant southern latitudes. 
Who could foresee when first iodine was accidentally 
discovered in sea - weeds, through soda factories, or 
bromine subsequently appeared as a mere substance 
of curiosity, what powerful therapeutic agents there- 
by were gained for medicine, what unique results they 
would render for chemical processes, of what incalcu- 
lable advantages they would prove in physiological 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 163 

researches or microscopic tests ; and how, without 
them, photographic art could not have depictured, 
with unerring fidelity, millions of objects, whether of 
landscapes or of the starry sky, whether of the beings 
dear to us or the relics of antiquity, whether enlarging 
the scope of lithography or recording the languages, 
which the flashing of telegraphic electricity sends to 
a dwelling or to an empire ? Even the vegetable 
fossils, deep-buried in the earth or in the cleavage of 
rocks, when viewed by the light of phj'tology, become 
so many letters on the pages of nature's revelation, 
from which we are to learn the age of strata, or may 
trace the sources of metallic wealth, or by which we 
may be guided to huge remnants of forests of bygone 
ages, stored up for the utilization of this epoch, or 
may comprehend, as far as mortal understanding 
serves us, successive changes in tellurian creation. 

When Ray and, subsequently, Jussieu, framed tlio 
first groundwork for the ordinal demarcation of 
plants ; when Tournefort, by defining generic limits, 
brought further clearness into the chaos of dawning 
systematic knowledge,[and when Linnse gave so hap- 
pily to each plant its second or specific name, but lit- 
tle was it indeed foreseen what a vast influence these 
principles of sound methodic arrangement would ex- 
ercise, not only on the easy recognition of the varied 
forms of vegetable life, but also on the philosophic 
elucidation of their properties and uses, and this for 
all times to come. Many, even at the present day, 
and among them at times those on whom the desti- 
nies of whole states and populations may depend, can 
recognize in phytographic and other scientific labors 
but little else than a mere play-work ; yet, without 



164 FOREST CULT^TRE AND 

such labors, every solid basis for applying the knowl- 
edge of plants to uses of any kind would be wanting. 
We would stray, indeed, unguided in a labyrinth 
between crude masses or inordinate fragments, instead 
of dwelling in a grand and lasting structure of knowl- 
edge, unless science also in this direction had raised 
its imperishable temples. But how much patient and 
toilsome research had to be spent thus to bring togeth- 
er in a systematic arrangement all the products of 
this wide globe ; how many dangers of exploring 
travelers had to be braved to amplify the material for 
this knowledge, and how many have to pass away, 
even now-a-days, persecuted and worried like Galileo 
at his time, no one yet has told, nor will tell. Well 
may we feel with the great German poet, as expressed 
in Bulwer Lytton's beautiful wording : 

" I will reward thee in a holier laud, 
Do give to me thy youth ! 
All I can grant you lies in this command — 
I heard, and trusting in a holier laud, 
Gave my youug joys to truth." 

But is there nothing higher than the search of 
earthly riches, and is to this all knowledge of the 
earth's beautiful vegetation also to be rendered sub- 
servient ? Is there nothing loftier than to break the 
flowers for our gayeties or to strew them along a 
mirthful path ? There is ! They raised the noblest 
feelings of the poet at all ages ; they spoke the purest 
words of attachment; they ever were the silent har- 
bingers of love. They smilingly inspired hope anew 
in unmeasured sadness, and on the death-bed or at 
the grave they appear to link together, as symbols of 
ever -returning springs, the mortal world with im- 
mortality : they ever teach us some of the sublimest 
revelations of our eternal God. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 165 

The laurel crown of the hero was a people's high- 
est reward of chivalrous and glorious deeds. 

The myrtle or orange -wreath for bridal curls re. 
mains the proudest gift to youthful hope. 

The little blooming weed, content in a parched and 
dreary desert, revived the strength of many a sinking 
wanderer (Mungo Park) ; the ever unalterable beauty 
and harmony of moral structures preaches the truths 
of eternal laws in the universe — a faith that gave 
expression to Schiller's memorable words, as repeated 
by that leading British statesman, Gladstone : <<It's 
not all chance the world obeys." The innocent love- 
liness of nature's flowers has often aroused anew the 
shaken spirit of the philosopher, and to these and 
other gifts of nature the American bard alludes when 
he speaks of the great zoologist, Agassiz, of whose 
friendship I may well be proud : 

" And whenever the way seemed so long. 
Or his heart began him to fail, 
She woiild 6ing a still more wondrous song, 
Or tell,a more marvellous tale." 

And when it seems that all hopes of the weeping 
mother are extinguished, or even the teachings of 
religion may well-nigh forsake her, then the deep 
meaning of some of our noblest poems, inspired by 
nature, is understood, and faith in eternity once more 
embraced. 

" And the mother gave iu tear and pain 
The flowers she most did love ; 
She knew she would find them all again 
In the fields of light above." 
" And with childlike credulous affection 
We behold their tender bud expand — 
Emblems of our own resurrection — 
Bmbjems of the bright and better land," 




Eucalyptus Globulus. 

(Showing the Seed Cups.) 



AUSTRALIAN VEGETATION. 



The great continent of Australia exhibits through- 
out its varied zones marked diversities in the physi- 
ognomy of its vegetation. These differences stand 
less in relation to geographical latitudes than to geo- 
logical formations, and especially climatical condi- 
tions. Yet it is in few localities only where the pecu- 
liar features, impressed by nature as a whole on the 
Australian landscape, cannot at once be recognized. 
The occurrence of Eucalypts and simple-leaved Aca- 
cias in all regions, and the preponderance of these 
trees in most, suffice alone to demonstrate that in 
Australia we are surrounded largely by forms of the 
vegetable world which, as a complex, nowhere re-oc- 
cur beyond its territory, unless in creations of ages 
passed by. 

In a cursory glance at the vegetation, as intended 
on this occasion, it is not the object to analyze its 
details. In viewing vegetable life here, more parti- 
cularly as the exponent of clime, or as the guide for 
settlement, or as the source of products for arts and 
manufactures, we may content ourselves by casting a 
view only on the leading features presented by the 
world of plants in this great country. While the 
absence of very high and wooded mountains imparts 
to the vegetation throughout a vast extent of Austra- 
lia a degree of rnonotony, we perceive that the occur- 



168 FOREST CULTURE AND 

rence of lofty forest ranges along the whole eastern 
and south-eastern coast changes largely there the as- 
pect of the country, and in this alteration the moun- 
tainous island Tasmania greatly participates. Thus 
the extensive umbrageous forest regions of perpetual 
humidity commence in the vicinity of Cape Otway ; 
extend occasionally, but not widely interrupted, 
through the southern and eastern part of Victoria, 
and thence, especially on the seaside slopes of the 
ranges, throughout the whole of extra-and intra-trop- 
ical East Australia in a band of more or less width, 
until the cessation of elevated mountains on the north- 
ern coast confines the regions of continued moisture 
to a narrow strip of jungle-land margining the coast. 
In this vdst line of elevated coast-country, extend- 
ing in length over nearly three thousand miles, and 
which fairly may pass as the <' Australian jungle," the 
vegetation assimilates more than elsewhere to extra- 
Australian types, especially to the impressive floral 
features of continental and insular India. Progressing 
from the Victorian promontories easterly, and thence 
northerly, we find that the Eucalypts, which still pre- 
ponderate in the forest of the southern ranges, gradu- 
ally forsake us, and thus in eastern Gipps Land com- 
mences the vast assemblage of varied trees which so 
much charms by its variety of forms, and so keenly 
engages attention by the multiplicity of its interest. 
Bathed in vapor from innumerable springs or torrents, 
and sheltered under the dark foliage of trees very 
varied in form, a magnificent display of the Fern- 
trees commences, for which further westerly we 
would seek in vain the climatic conditions. Even 
isolated sentries, as it were, of the Fern-tree masses 



fiUCALYPTtrs TREES. l69 

are scattered not further west than to the craters of 
extinct volcanoes near Mount Gambler, and although 
colossal Todea Ferns, with stems six to ten feet high, 
and occasionally as thick, emerge from the streamlets 
which meander through the deep ravines near Mount 
Lofty, on St. Vincent's Gulf, we miss there the stately 
Palm-like grace of the Cyathese, Dicksonise, and Al- 
sophilee, which leave on the lover of nature who ever 
beheld them the remembrance of their inexpressible 
beauty. These Fern - trees, often twenty to thirty, 
occasionally fifty to seventy feet high, and at least as 
many years old, if not older, admit readily of removal 
from their still mild and humid haunts to places where, 
for decorative vegetation, we are able to produce the 
moisture and the shade necessary for their existence. 
Of all Fern-trees of the globe that species which pre- 
dominates through the dark glens of Victoria, Tasma- 
nia, and parts of New South Wales, the Dicksonia 
Antarctica (although not occurring in the antarctic 
regions), is the most hardy and least susceptible to 
dry heat. This species, therefore, should be chosen 
for garden ornaments, or for being plunged into any 
park glens ; and if it is considered that trees half a 
century old may with impunity be deprived of their 
foliage and sent away to distant countries as ordinary 
merchandise, it is also surprising that a plant so abund- 
ant has not yet become an article of more extended 
commerce. 

A multitude of smaller ferns, many of delicate 
forms, are harbored under the shade of jungle vege- 
tation, amounting in their aggregate to about one 
hundred and sixty species, to which number future 
researches in north - east Australia will undoubtedly 



170 FOREST CULTURE AN±) 

add. The circular Asplenium nidus, or great Nest 
Fern, with fronds often six feet long, extends to the 
eastern part of Gipps Land, but the equally grand Stag- 
horn Fern ( Platycerium alcicorne and P. grande ) 
seemingly cease to advance south of Illawarra, while 
in northern Queeensland Angiopteris evecta count 
among the most gorgeous, and two slender Alsophilre 
among the most graceful forms. The transhipment 
of all these Ferns offers lucrative inducements to trad- 
ers with foreign countries. Epiphytal Orchids, so 
much in horticultural request, are less numerous in 
these jungle-tracts than might have been anticipated, 
those discovered not yet exceeding thirty in number. 
Tlieir isolated outposts advance in one representative 
species — the Sarcochilus Gunnii — to Tasmania and the 
vicinity of Cape Otway, and in another — Cymbidium 
canaliculatum — toward Central Australia. The com- 
parative scantiness of these epiphytes contrasts as 
strangely with the Indian Orchid-vegetation as with 
the exuberance of the lovely terrestrial co-ordinal 
plants throughout most parts of extra-tropical Austra- 
lia, from whence one hundred and twenty well-defined 
species are known. Still more remarkable is the al- 
most total absence of Orchids, both terrestrial and epi- 
phytal, from north and north-west Australia, an ab- 
sence for which in the central parts of the continent 
aridity sufficiently accounts, but for which we have 
no other explanation in the north than that the spe- 
cies have as yet there effected but a limited migra- 
tion. To the jungles and cedar-brushes — the latter 
so named because they yield that furniture- wood so 
famed as the Red Cedar (Cedrela taona, a tree identi- 
cal as a species with the Indian plant, though slight- 



iltJCALYPTUS TREES. 171 

ly different in its wood) are absolutely confined the 
Anonacese, Laurinese, Monimiese, Meliacese, Rubi- 
acese, Myrsinese, Sapotete, Ebenaceae, and Anacardiea^, 
together with the Baccate Myrtaceae, and nearly all 
the trees of Euphorbiacse, Rutaceje, Apocynere, Celas- 
trineae, Sapindacese, which, while often outnumbering 
the interspersed Eucalypts, seem to transfer the ob- 
server to Indian regions. None in the multitude of 
trees of these orders, with exception of our tonic-aro- 
matic Sassafras-tree (Atherospermum moschatum)and 
Hedycarpa Cunninghami, which supplies to the na- 
tives the friction- wood for igniting, transgres% in the 
south the meridians of Gipps Land. Palms cease also 
there to exist, but their number increases northward 
along the east coast, while in Victoria these noble 
plants have their only representative in the tall-cab- 
bage or Fan - palm of the Snowy River — that Palm 
which, with the equally hardy Areca sapida of New 
Zealand, ought to be established wherever the Date is 
planted for embellishment. Rotang Palms (Calami 
of several species) render some of the northern thick- 
ets almost inapproachable, while there, also, on a few 
spots of the coast, the Cocoanut-tree occurs spontane- 
ously. A few peculiar Palms occur in the Cassowary 
country, near Cape York, and others around the Gulf of 
Carpentaria, as far west as Arnhemsland. The tallest 
of all, the lofty Alexandra Palm (Ptychosperma Alex- 
drie), extends southward to the tropic of Capricorn, 
and elevates its majestic crown widely beyond the or- 
dinary trees of the jungle. The products of these en- 
tire forests is as varied as the vegetation which con- 
stitutes them. As yet, however, their treasures have 
been but scantily subjected to the test of the physi- 



172 FOREST CULTURE AND 

cian, the manufacturer, or the artisan. The bark of 
Alstonia constricta, like that of allied Indian species, 
is ascertained to be febrifugal, so that of Chionanthus 
axillaris, and Brucea Sumatrana. Caoutchouc might 
be produced from various trees, especially the tall 
kinds of Ficus. The lustre and tint of the polished 
woods of others is unrivaled. Edible fruits are yield- 
ed by Achras Australis, Achras Pohlmaniana, Mimu- 
sops kauki, Zizyphus jujuba, Citrus Australis, Citrus 
Planchonii, Eugenia Myrtifolia, Eugenia tierneyana, 
Parinarium nonda, the Candlenut-tree (Aleurites tri- 
loba), and the cluster Fig-tree (Ficus vesca, which 
produces its bunches from the stem) ; also by species 
of Ovvenia and Spondias, and by several brambles 
and vines. Starchy aliment or edible tubers are fur- 
nished by Taccapinnatifida, by several Cissi (C. opaca, 
C. clematidea, acrid when unprepared), Marsdeni vir- 
idiflora, Colocasia antiquorum, Alocasia macrorrhiza, 
by a colossal Cycas, some Zamise, and several kinds of 
Yam (Dioscorea bulbifera, Dioscorea punctata, and 
other species). Backhousia citriodora and Myrtus 
fragrantissima yield a cosmetic oil ; so, also. Euca- 
lyptus citriodora, a tree not confined to the jungle, 
and two kinds of Ocimum. Semecarpus anacardium, 
the marking Nut-tree, is a native of the most north- 
ern brush-country. The medicinal Mallotus Philip- 
pinensis, and the poisonous Excsecaria Agallocha are 
more frequent. Baloghia lucida furnishes a red dye 
never to be obliterated. 

Many of the trees of the coast-forests of East Aus- 
tralia range from the extreme north to the remotest 
south, among them the Palm - panax ; others, like 
Araucaria Cunninghami, extend only to the northern 



EtrCALYFftlS infills. 173 

part of New South Wales, while some, including 
Araucaria Bidwelli, or the Bunya-Bunya-tree, so re- 
markable for its large, edible, nutlike seeds, and the 
Australian Kauri, Dammara robusta, are confined to 
very circumscribed or solitary areas. The absence of 
superior spice-plants (as far as hitherto ascertained) 
amidst a vegetation of prevailing Indian type is not 
a little remarkable, for Cinnamomum Laubatii ranks 
only as a noble timber-tree, and the native nutmegs 
are inert. The scantiness of acanthaceous plants is 
also a noticeable fact. Podostemonese have not yet 
been found. Many plants of great interest to the 
phytographer are seemingly never quitting the north- 
eastern peninsula ; among these the Banksian ba- 
nana (Musa Banksii), the pitcher-plant (Nepenthes 
Kennedyana), the vermillion - flowered Eugenia Wil- 
sonii, the curious Helmholtzia acorifolia, the Mar 
shal-tree, Archideudron Vaillantii (the only plant of 
the vast order of Leguminoste with numerous styles), 
the splendid Diplanthera quadrifolia, Ficus magnifo- 
lia, with leaves two feet long, the tall Cardwellia sub- 
limis, and the splendid Cryptocarpa Mackinnoniana, 
are especially remarkable. Bhapidophara, Pothos, 
Piper, together with a host of Lianes, especially gay 
through the prevalence of Ipomseas, tend with so many 
other plants to impart to the jungle part of Australia 
all the luxuriance of tropical vegetation. Of the two 
great Nettle-trees, the Laportea gigas occurs in the most 
northern regions, while Laportea photinifolia is more 
widely diffused. Helicia is represented by a number 
of fine trees far south, some bearing edible nuts. 
Doryanthes excelsa, the tall spear-lily, is confined to 
the forests of New South "Wales. The flowers of Ob- 



174 FOREST CULTURE AUD 

eronia palmicola are more minute than those of any- 
other orchideous plant, although more than two thou- 
sand species are known from various parts of the globe. 
The display of trees eligible for avenues from these 
jungles is large. The tall Fern-palm (Zamia Deniso- 
nii), one of the most stately members of the varied 
Australian vegetation, is widely, but nowhere copi- 
ously, diffused along the east coast ; it yields a kind 
of sago, like allied plants. The beans of Casta nosper- 
mum Australe, which are rich in starch, and those of 
Entada purssetha, from a pod often four feet long, are, 
with very many other vegetable substances, on which 
Mons. Thozet has shed much light, converted by the 
aborigines into food. 

If plants representing the genera Berberis, Impa- 
tiens, Rosa, Begonia, Ilex, Rhododendron, Vaccini- 
ura, or, perhaps, even Firs, Cypresses, and Oaks, do 
at all occur in Australia, as in the middle regions of 
the mountains of India, it will be on the highest hills 
of north-east Australia — namely, on the Bellenden 
Ker ranges, mountains still unapproachable through 
the hostility of the natives — where they will find the 
cooler and simultaneously moist tropical climate con- 
genial to their existence. But whatever may be the 
variety and wealth of the primitive flora of East Aus- 
tralia, it is only by the active intelligence and exer- 
tions of man that the greatest riches can be wrought 
from the soil. Whatever plants he may choose to 
raise — whatever costly spices, luscious fruits, expen- 
sive dyes ; whether cacao, manihot, or other aliment- 
ary plants ;. whether sugar, coffee, or any others of 
more extensive tropical tillage — for all may be found 
wide tracts fitted for their new home. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 1'75 

The close access to harbors facilitates culture, while 
the expansive extent of geographical latitude on the 
east coast admits of choosing such spots as in each in- 
stance present the most favorable climatic conditions 
for the success of each special plantation. Beyond the 
coast ranges the country westward changes with aug- 
menting dryness generally at once into more open 
pastoral ground. Basaltic downs and gentle verdant 
rises of eminent richness of herbage may alternately 
give way to Brigalow scrubs, or sandstone plateaux, 
or porphyritic or granitic hills, and with the change of 
the geological formation a change, often very appa- 
rent, will taker place also in the vegetation. Inland we 
will lose sight of the glossy, dense, umbrageous foliage, 
which now only borders a generally low coast in 
the north, terminating there frequently in mangroves. 
Strychnos nux vomica occurs among the coast-bushes 
here, and also an Antiaris ( A. macrophylla ) ; but 
whether the latter shares the deadly poison of the 
Upas-tree of Java and Sumatra requires to be ascer- 
tained. Tamarindus Indica is known from Arnhems- 
land, and the French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in a 
spontaneous state from the north-west coast. Euca- 
lypts, again, form awivy from the sea the prevailing 
timber, but with the exception of the Red Gum-tree 
(Eucalyptus rostrata), which lines most of the rivers 
of the whole of the Australian interior, the southern 
species are replaced by others, never of gigantic 
growth , in some instances adorned with brilliant scar- 
let or crimson blossoms. But neither these nor many 
distinct kinds of northern Acacias and Melaleucas 
stamp on the country the expression of peculiarity. 
Familiar Australian forms usually surround us, though 



176 FOREST CtJL^tJilB Al^b 

those of the cooler zone, and even the otherwise al- 
most universal Senecios, are generally absent. Cype- 
rus vaginatus, perhaps the best of all textile rushes, 
ranges from the remotest south to these northern re- 
gions. Hibiscus tiliaceus, with other malvaceous 
plants, is here chosen by the natives for the fibre of 
their fishing-nets and cordage. An occasional inter- 
spersion of the dazzling Erythrina vespertilio, of 
Bauhinia Leichardti, Erythrophlaeurn Laboucheri, 
Livistonia Palms, and many Terminalise, some with 
edible fruits, Cochlospermum Gregorii, C. heterone- 
mum, remind, however, of the flora of tropical lati- 
tudes, which, moreover, to the eye of an experienced 
observer, is revealed also in a multitude of smaller 
plants, either identical with South Asiatic species or 
representing in peculiar forms tropical genera. The 
identity of about six hundred Asiatic plants (some 
cosmopolitan) with native Australian species, has been 
placed beyond doubt, and to this series of absolutely 
identical forms, as well derived from the jungle as 
from grounds free of forest, unquestionably several 
hundred will yet be added. 

Melaleuca leucadendron, the Cajeput-tree of India, 
is among Indo- Australian trees one of the most uni- 
versal ; it extends, as one of the largest timber-trees 
of north Australia, along many of its rivers, and in 
diminutive size over the dry sand-stone table-lands. 
The Asiatic and Pacific Casuarina equisetifolia accom- 
panies it often in the vicinity of the coast. By far 
the most remarkable form in the vegetation of north- 
west Australia as the Gouty - stem - tree (Adansonia 
Gregorii) ; but it is restricted to a limited tract of 
coast-country. It assumes precisely the bulky form 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 177 

of its only congener, the Monkey-bread-tree, or Bao- 
bab of tropical Africa ( Adansonia digitata), dissimilar 
mainly in having its nuts not suspended on long fruit- 
stalks. Evidence, though not conclusive, gained in 
Australia, when applied to the African Baobab, ren- 
ders it improbable that the age of any individual tree 
now in existence dates from remote antiquity. This 
view is also held by Dr. G. Bennett, of Sydney. The 
tree is of economic importance j its stem yields a mu- 
cilage indurating to a tragacanth-like gum. It is also 
one of the few trees which introduces the unwonted 
sight of deciduous foliage into the evergreen Austra- 
lian vegetation. Numerous swamps and smaller lakes 
exist within moderate distance of the coast ; as in 
many other parts of Australia, these waters are sur- 
rounded by the wiry Polygonum (Muehlenbeckia 
Cunninghami), and in Arnhemsland occasionally also 
by rice-plants, not distinct from the ancient culture- 
plant. But here, in almost equinoctial latitudes, the 
stagnant fresh waters are almost invariably nourishing 
two Water-lilies of great beauty (Nymphaea stellata 
and Nymphsea gigantea), which give, by the gay dis- 
play of their blue, pink, or crimson shades of flowers, 
or by their pure white, a brilliant aspect to these lakes ; 
and even the Pythagorean bean (Nelumbo nucifera) 
sends occasionally its fine shield-like leaves and large 
blossom and esculent fruits out of the still and shel- 
tered waters. But how much could this splendor of 
lake- vegetation be augmented if the reginal Victoria, 
the prodigious Water-lily of the Amazon Biver, was 
scattered and naturalized in these lakes, to expand 
over their surface its stupendous leaves, and to send 
forth its huge, snowy, and crimson, fragrant flowers. 



178 FOBEST CULTURE AND 

It would add to the aliment which the natives now 
obtain from these lakes and swamps by diving for the 
roots and fruits of the Nymph se, or for the tubers of 
Heleocharis sphacelata, of species of Aponogeton, or 
by uprooting the starchy rhizomes of Typha augusti- 
folia (the Bullrush), when eager of adding a vegetable 
compound to their diet of XJnio shells, or of water- 
fowls and fishes, all abounding on these favorite places 
of their resort. Trapa bispinosa, already living, like 
the Victoria, in the tanks of our conservatories, ought, 
with Trapa natans, for the sake of its nuts, not only 
to be naturalized in the waters of the north, but also 
in the lagoons and swamps of the south. Around 
these lakes Screw-Pines (Pandanus spiralis and Pan- 
danus aquaticus) may often be seen to emerge from 
the banks, the latter, as recorded already by Leich- 
hardt, always indicative of permanent water. The 
young top-parts of the stems of these Pandans, when 
subjected to boiling, become free of acridity, and thus 
available, in cases of emergency, for food. Opilia 
amentacea and the weeping Eugenia eucalyptoides, 
together with a native cucumber (Cucumis jucunda), 
are here among the few plants yielding edible fruit. 
Purslane (Portulaca oleracea) abounds, and in sandy 
soil it is found pleasantly acidulous. It will always 
be acceptable, as a salad or spinach, especially in affec- 
tions from scurvy, and its amylaceous seeds might, 
in cases of distress, be readily gathered for food. A 
delicious tall perennial spinach (Chenopodium aurica- 
mum) is not unfrequent. Beyond one kind of San- 
darach Callitris no Pines exist in the north, except 
the Araucaria Greyi, noticed on a circumscribed spot 
on the Glenelg river. The true Bamboo (Bambusa 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 179 

arundinacea) lines, as far as yet discovered, only the 
banks of a few of tlie rivers of Arnhgms-Iand. 

To the pastoral settler, for whom more particularly 
the generally open Eucalyptus country or the treeless 
or partly scrubby tracts are eligible, it must be of sig- 
nificance that the rainfall occurs with frequency during 
the hottest part of the year. Hence, during the Sum- 
mer, grass and herbage is pushing forth with extra- 
ordinary rapidity and exuberance, while a judicious 
burning at the cooler season, together with the effect 
of regular dews, is certain to produce fresh forage 
during the dryer months. An almost endless variety 
of perennial nutritious grasses, allied to Indian spe- 
cies, or even identical with them, are known to exist. 
The basaltic downs of the north and north-west pro- 
duce almost precisely the same vegetation which has 
rendered Darling and Peak Downs so famed in the 
east. This almost absolute identity of plants is a suf- 
ficient indication of great semblance of climate, for 
which the rise of the country, though one not very 
considerable, to some extent may account. On the 
ranges which divide the waters of the east coast from 
those of Carpentaria the vine luxuriates ; its fruit, 
indeed, suff'ers occasionally from frost. 

H|ow far the tract south of the more littoral north- 
ern country may continue to bear prevailingly the 
features of fertility cannot be predicated. There can 
be no greater fallacy than to prejudge an untraversed 
country — a fallacy to which explorers are prone, and 
which, in some instances, has retarded advancement 
of geographical discoveries and of new locations of 
permanent abodes, while, in other instances, it has 
led to disastrous consequences. A country should be 



180 FOREST CULTURE AND 

judged with caution. Even from elevations compar- 
atively inconsiderable, as such nearly always proved 
away from the eastern coast, the orb of vision is lim- 
ited. A traveler may, buoyant with hope, commence 
his new daily conquest on the delightful natural lawns 
or the verdant slopes of a trap formation ; and, before 
many hours' ride, he may, to his dismay, be brought 
without water to a bivouac between the sand - waves 
of decomposed barren rocks. ]But as suddenly a few 
hours' perseverance may bring him again into geo- 
logical regions of fertility when he least expected it ; 
smiling landscapes may again burst into his view, 
and he may establish his next camp on limpid water, 
sufficient for the requirements of a future city. The 
nature of a country is not ruled by climate and lati- 
tude alone, but quite as much, if not more, by its 
geological structure. Glancing on the map of an un- 
explored country, we are apt to take in our conject- 
ures the former alone for a guide, until the latter, by 
actual field-operations, becomes our stronghold in to- 
pographical mapping. It would thus be unsafe to as- 
sume that the great western half of the interior consists 
mainly of desolate, uninhabitable desert-country, or 
even to contend that the reappearance on Termination 
Lake, or on the Murchison river, of so very many of 
the plants which give to the saltbush country, or the 
Mallee and Brigalow scrubs, on the extensive depres- 
sion of the Darling system, their physiognomy, neces- 
sitates their uninterrupted extension from the rear of 
Arnhems-land to the Murray Desert, or to Shark Bay. 
From demonstrating- facts like these we dare no more 
infer but that likely many similar tracts of flat coun- 
try are stretching over portions of the wide interven- 



EUCALYPTUS TEEES. 181 

ing spaces. But who will predict more ? May not 
the large system of salt lakes formed by the drainage 
of rain into cavities of saline flats be found limited to 
the less distant portions of the interior of Western 
Australia, and may it not thus, by a gradual rise of 
the ground (evidently manifest northerly), give place 
to a system of fresh-water lakes or lagoons, or even of 
such springs as rewarded the exertions of the keenly- 
searching explorers west of Lake Eyre ? And although 
it must be admitted that no ranges simultaneously 
lofty and wooded, and thus originating springs and 
rivulets for the formation of larger rivers, are likely 
to exist to any extent in the extra- tropical part of the 
western interior, because such rivers have not found 
their way to the coast ; yet it is still possible, and 
rather probable, that mountains as high, and much 
less bare than Gawler Range, and even much more 
extensive, may give rise to interior water-courses, 
along which the dwellings of new colonists may be 
established, and to which our pasture-animals may 
flock, but which, in their sluggish progress, cannot 
force their way to the ocean, and are thus lost in nu- 
merous more or less ample inland basins. Years hence, 
on even less-favored spots, artesian borings may afibrd 
the means of stay for a dense population, should, as 
may be anticipated, mineral riches prove to be scat- 
tered not merely over the vicinity of the west coast 
and Spencer's Gulf, but also over interjacent areas of 
geological similarity. York's Peninsula, close to set- 
tlements, was long left an uninhabited and desolate 
spot until its richness of copper-ore was disclosed. 
So other unmapped parts of Australia are also likely 
to prove rich ; and, although equal facilities for the 



182 FOREST CULTURE AND 

transit of the mineral treasures would not always 
exist, its discovery would be certain to lead to the 
occupation of the country and to the extension of 
pastoral colonization, until an increasing population 
and augmented conveniences for traffic could turn 
mineral wealth, however distantly located, advanta- 
geously to account. But how vastly might not any 
barren tracts of the interior be improved, and how 
many a lordly possession be founded, by patient in- 
dustry and intelligent judgment! Storage of water, 
raising of woods, dissemination of perennial fodder- 
plants, will create alone marvellous changes ; and for 
these operations means are readily enough at com- 
mand. Even the scattering of the grains of the com- 
mon British Orache (Atriplex patulum), an annual but 
autumnal plant, would, on the barest ground, realize 
fodder for sheep ; and the number of plants which for 
such purpose could be chosen are legion. The storage 
of rain-water might, in any rising valley, be so effect- 
ed as to render it, simply by gravitation, available 
for irrigating purposes. 

As a curious fact, it may be instanced that, in some 
of the waterless sandy regions of South Africa, the 
copious naturalization of melon -plants has afforded 
the means of establishing halting- places in a desert 
country. On the sandy shores of the Great Bight, 
and also anywhere in the dry interior, such plants 
might be easily established. The avidity with which 
the natives at Escape Cliffs preserved the melon- 
seeds, after they once had recognized the value of 
their new treasure, holds out the prospect of the grad- 
ual diffusion of such vegetable boons over much unset- 
tled country. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 183 

No part of Australia has the marked peculiarities 
of its vegetation so strongly expressed, and no part 
of this great country produces so rich an assemblage 
of species within a limited area as the remotest 
south-western portion of the continent. Indeed, the 
southern extremity of Africa is the only part of the 
globe in which an equally varied display of vegetable 
forms is found within equally narrow precincts, and 
endowed also with an equal richness of endemic gen- 
era. It is beyond the scope of this brief treatise to 
enter fully into a detailed exposition of the constitu- 
ents of the south-western flora. It may mainly suffice 
to view such of the vegetable products as are drawn 
already into industrial use, or are likely to be of avail 
for the purpose. Foremost in this respect stands, 
perhaps, the Mahogany-Eucalypt (Eucalyptus margi- 
nata). The timber of this tree exhibits the won- 
derful quality of being absolutely impervious to the 
inroads of the limnoria, the teredo, and chelura — those 
minute marine creatures so destructive to wharves, 
jetties, and any work of naval architecture exposed 
to the water of the sea ; it equally resists the attacks 
of termites. In these properties the Red Gum-tree 
of our own country largely shares. The Mahogany- 
Eucalypt has, in the Botanic Gardens of this city, 
been brought for the first time largely under cultiva- 
tion, and as, clearly, the natural supply of this impor- 
tant timber will, sooner or later, prove inadequate to 
the demanded requirements, it must be regarded as 
a wise measure of the governments of France ana 
Italy now to establish this tree on the Mediterranean 
shores — a measure for which still greater facilities 
^re here locally offered. 



184 FOREST CULTURE AND 

The Tuart (Eucalyptus gomphocephala) is another 
of the famed artisan's woods of south-western Aus- 
tralia. The Karri (Eucalyptus colossea or diversicolor) 
attains, in favorable spots, a height of four hundred 
feet. Eucalyptus megacarpa constitutes the Blue 
Gum-tree, which rivals that of Tasmania and Victo- 
ria in size, but is otherwise very distinct. Its timber, 
as well as that of the Tuart, on account of their hard- 
ness, are employed for tramways and other works of 
durability. The fragrant wood of several species of 
Santalum* forms an article of commercial export. 
Some kinds of Casuarina, quite peculiar to that part 
of Australia, furnish superior wood for shingles and 
for a variety of implements. Several species of Aca- 
cia, especially Acacia acuminata, the raspberry-scented 
Wattle, equally restricted to the south-west coast, 
yield fragrant and remarkably solid wood and a pure 
gum. To this part of Australia was naturally also re- 
stricted the Acacia lophantha, which has, for the sake 
of its easy and rapid growth and its umbrageous fo- 
liage, assumed such importance, even beyond Austra- 
lia, for temporary shelter- plantations. Many other 
products, such as gum -resins, sandarach, tanner's 
hark, all of great excellence, are largely available ; 
but these substances show considerable similarity to 
those obtained in other Australian colonies. 

The extraordinary abundance, however, of the Xan- 
thorrhceas through most parts of the south-west terri- 
tory gives special interest to the fact (1845) promul- 
gated by Stenhouse, that anthrazotic, or nitro-picric 
acid — a costly dye — may, with great ease and little 
cost, be prepared from the resin of these plants. In- 
deed, this is the richest source for this acid, the resin 



EUCALYPTUS TKEES. 185 

yielding half its weight in dye. Fiber of great excel- 
lence and strength is obtained from the bark of Pim- 
elea clavata, a bush widely distributed there. It 
resembles that of bast from Piraelea axiflora in Gipps 
Land, and that from Pimelea microcephala of the Mur- 
ray and Darling desert. A Fern-palm (Zamia Fraseri) 
attains in West Australia a height of fifteen feet. It 
is there, like some congeners of America and South 
Africa, occasionally sacrificed for the manufacture of 
a peculiar starch, though the export of the stems (and 
perhaps of those of the Xanthorrhoeas also) would 
prove much more profitable, inasmuch as these, when 
deprived of their noble crown of leaves, though not 
of their roots, will endure a passage of many months, 
even should the plants be half a century old. Such 
any wool- vessel might commodiously take to Europe. 
This alimentary Fern-palm, well appreciated by the 
aborigines for the sake of its nuts, together with a 
true kind of Yam (Dioscorea hastifolia), the only plant 
on which the natives, in their pristine state, anywhere 
in Australia, bestowed a crude cultivation, are, with 
species of Borya, Sowerbsea, Hsemodorum, Ricinocar- 
pus, Macarthuria, Chloanthes, Aphanopetalum, Xylo- 
melum, Caleana, Calectasia, Petrophila, Leschenaul- 
tia, Pseudanthus, Nematolepis, Nuytsia (the terres- 
trial mistletoe), Leucolsena, Commersonia, Rulingia, 
Keraudrenia, Mirbelia, Gastrolobium, Labichea, Meli- 
chrus, Monotaxis, Actinotus, and Stypandra, remark- 
able for their geographical distribution ; because, as 
far as we are hitherto aware, these West Australian 
genera have no representatives in the wide interja- 
cent space until we approach toward the eastern, or, 
in a few instances, to the northern regions of Austra- 



186 FOREST CULTURE AND 

lia, Zamia alone having been noticed in South Austra- 
lia (Zamia Macdonnellii), but there as an exceedingly 
local plant. Neither climate nor geologic considera- 
tions explain this curious fact of phytogeography. 
Over some of the healthy tracts of scrub-country, to- 
ward the south-west coast, poisonous species of Gas- 
trolobium (Gastrol bilobum, G. oxylobioides, G. caly- 
cinum, G. callistachys) are dispersed. These plants 
have, in some localities, rendered the occupation of 
country for pastoral pursuits impossible, but these 
poison-plants are mostly confined to barren spots, and 
it is not unlikely that, by repeated burnings, and by 
the raising of perennial fodder-plants, they could be 
suppressed, and finally extirpated. Fortunately, in 
no other parts of Australia Gastrolobium occurs, ex- 
cept on the inland tract from Attack Creek to the Sut- 
tor River, where flocks must be guarded against ac- 
cess to the scrub-patches harboring the only tropical 
species (Gastrolobium grandiflorum). The deadly ef- 
fect occasionally produced by Lotus Australis, a herb 
with us of very wide distribution, and extending also 
to New Caledonia, and the cerebral derangements 
manifested by pasture animals, which feed on the Dar- 
lingRiverpea (SwainsonaGreyana), need yet extensive 
investigation, but may find their explanation in the 
fact that the organic poisonous principle is only local- 
ly, under conditions yet obscure, developed ; or in 
the probable circumstance that, like in a few other 
leguminous plants, the deleterious properties are 
strongly concentrated in the seed. The gorgeous des- 
ert-pea (Clianthus Dampierii), which, in its capricious 
distribution, has been traced sparingly from the 
Lachlan Bivey to the north-west coast, offers still to 
seecl^CQllectc!?:s ?i Ivicrative gain. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 187 

A prominent aspect in the vegetation of south-west 
Australia emanates from the comparatively large num- 
ber of singularly beautiful Banksia-tree, preponderant 
there as the arborous Grevilleae in North Australia. 
The existence of but two of that genus, Banksia Aus- 
tralis, and B. ornata, in the extensive tract of interior 
and coast land, from the head of the Australian Bight, 
to the vicinity of Port Philip, renders the occurrence 
of an increased number of trees of this kind in East 
Australia again still more odd. Rutaceous and good- 
eniaceous plants, though in no part of the Australian 
continent rare, attain in the south-west their greatest 
numerical development, and should not be passed si- 
lently, or, like Epacridcffi, as merely ornamental plants, 
though still so rare in our gardens ; but these elegant 
plants deserve also attention for their diaphoretic prop- 
erties, or for the bitter tonic principle which pervades 
nearly all the species of the two orders. Stylidese are 
here still more numerous than in our north, and com- 
prise forms of great neatness ; while sundews (Dro- 
serae) are also found to be more frequently than in 
anyo ther part of Australia, and indeed of the globe. 
When, glittering in their adamantine dew, they re- 
appear as the harbingers of Sj)ring from year to year, 
they are greeted always anew with admiration. But 
the greatest charm of the vegetation consists in the 
hundreds of myrtaceous bushes peculiar to the west, 
all full of aromatic oil ; among these again, the feath- 
er-flowered numerous Verticordiae, the crimson Calo- 
thamni, and the healthy Calythrices vie with each 
other as ornaments. Still also of this order many gor- 
geous plants exist in other parts of, especially extra- 
tropicfli Australia, The numerous bushes of Legtj-. 



188 FOREST CULTURE AND 

minosne, and ProteacjB, in south-west Australia, are 
also charming. The introduction of all these into 
European conservatories might be made the object of 
profitable employment. Annual herbs of extreme 
minuteness, belonging chiefly to Compositae, Umbelli- 
ferae, Stylidege, and Centrolepideae, are here, as in oth- 
er parts of extra-tropical Australia, in their aggregate 
more numerous than minute phanerogamic plants in 
any other part of the globe. A line of demarcation 
for including the main mass of the south-west Austra- 
lian vegetation may almost be drawn from the Mur- 
chison River, or Shark Bay, to the western extremity 
of the Great Bight ; because to these points penetrates 
the usual interior vegetation, which thence ranges to 
Sturt's Creek, to the Burdekin, Darling, and Murray 
rivers, while the special south-west Australian flora 
ceases to exist as a whole beyond the limits indicated. 
The marine flora of south - west Australia is like- 
wise eminently prolific in specific forms, perhaps more 
so than that of any other shore. Many of the algae are 
endemic, others extend along the whole southern coast 
and Tasmania, where again a host of species proved pe- 
culiar ; some are also extra- Australian. The whole 
eastern coast contrarily, and also the northern and the 
north-western, with the exception of a few isolated 
spots, such as Albany Island, contrast with the southern 
coast as singularly poor in algae. In a work exclusively 
devoted to the elucidation of the marine plants of Aus- 
tralia—a work which as an ornament of phytograph- 
ic literature stands unsurpassed, and which necessitat- 
ed lengthened laborious researches of its illustrious 
author, the late Professor Harvey, here on the spot — 
the specific limits of not less than eight hundred algas 



EUCALYPTUS TBEES. 189 

are fixed. Some of these are not without their par- 
ticular uses. A few yield caragaheen, all bromine and 
iodine. Macrocystis pyrifera, the great kelp, which 
may be seen floating in large masses outside Port 
Philip Heads, attains the almost incredible length of 
many hundred feet, while a single plant of the leath- 
ery, broad Urvillea potatorum constitutes a heavy 
load for a pack-horse. 

The wide, depressed interior, once supposed to be 
an untraversable desert, consists, as far as hitherto 
ascertained, much less of sandy ridges than of sub- 
saline or grassy flats, largely interspersed with tracts 
of scrub, and occasionally broken by comparatively 
timberless ranges. The great genus Acacia, which 
gives to Australia alone about three hundred species 
(and, therefore, specific forms twice as numerous as 
that of any Australian generic type), sends its shrubs 
and trees also in masses over this part of the country, 
where, with their harsh and hard foliage, they are 
well capable to resist the effect of the high tempera- 
ture during the season of aridity, while they are 
equally contented with the low degree of warmth to 
which, during nights of the cool season, the dry at- 
mosphere becomes reduced, tiandsome bushes of 
Eremophila, with blossoms of manifold hue, decorate 
the scrubs throughout the whole explored interior. 
Among the desert Cassise two simple-leaved kinds are 
remarkable. Of the Acaciee, none here, except A. 
Farnesiana, have pinnated leaves, and even one is 
leafless ; the pinnated Acacige being restricted to the 
more littoral tracts, and even there from the Great 
Bight to Guichen Bay entirely absent. If shelter 
plantations of the rapidly-growing Eucalypts, Acacias, 



190 FOREST CULTURE AND 

and Casuarinas were raised, a vast variety of useful 
plants could be reared along the water-courses of the 
more central parts of Australia. Saltbushes, in great 
variety, stretch far inland, and this is the forage on 
which flocks so admirably thrive. Probably the ex- 
tensive Asiatic steppes have to boast of no greater di- 
versity of salsolaceous plants than our own. Never- 
theless, even here much could be added to the pro- 
ductiveness of these pasturages by the introduction of 
other perennial fodder herbs. Grasses, wherever they 
occur, are varied, and a large share is perennial, 
nutritious, and widely diffused. As corroborative, 
it may be instanced that Anthistiria ciliata, the 
common kangaroo-grass, almost universally ranges 
over Australia, and thus also over the central steppes 
of the continent. It extends, indeed, to Asia and 
North Africa also. Besides, through the interior, 
grasses, especially of Panicum and Andropogon, are 
numerous, either on the oases, or interspersed with 
shrubs on barren spots. Festuca or Triodia irritans, 
the porcupine-grass of the settlers, is restricted to the 
sands of the extra- tropical latitudes ; Festuca or Triodia 
viscida, chiefly to the sandstone table-lands of the 
tropics. 

Only in the south-eastern parts of the continent, 
and in Tasmania, are the mountains rising to alpine 
elevations. Mount Hotham, in Victoria, and Moun^ 
Kosciusko, in New South Wales, form the culminat 
ing points, each slightly exceeding seven thousand 
feet in height. In the ravines of these summits 
lodge perennial glaciers ; at six thousand feet snow 
remains unmelted for nearly the whole of the year, 
and snow-storms may occur in these elevations dur- 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 191 

ing the midst of Summer. At five thousand feet 
the vegetation of shrubs generally commences, and 
up to this height ascend two Eucalypts, Eucalyptus 
coriacejB and Gunnii, forming dense and extensive 
thickets ; E. coriacese assuming, however, in lower 
valleys, huge dimensions. Both these, with most of 
our alpine plants, would deserve transplanting to 
middle Europe, and to other countries of the 
temperate zone, where they would well cope with 
the vicissitudes of the climate. In Tasmania, the 
Winter snow- line sinks considerably lower, and in its 
moister clime many alpine plants descend there along 
the torrents and rivulets to the base of the mountains 
which here are constantly clinging to cold elevations. 
Mount William is the only sub-alpine height isolated 
in Victoria from the great complex of snowy mount- 
ains, but it produces, beyond Eucalyptus alpina, and 
Pultensea rosea, which are confined to the crest of that 
royal mountain, only Celmisia longifolia and little else 
as the mark of an alpine or rather subalpine flora. 
Celmisia also is one of the few representatives of cold 
heights in the Blue Mountains ; and from New Eng- 
land we know only Scleranthus biflorus, a cushion- 
like plant, exquisitely adapted for margining garden 
plots, and Gualtheria hispida, as generally indicating 
spots on which snow lodges for some of the Winter 
months. The mountains of Queensland would need 
in their tropical latitudes a greater height than they 
possess for nourishing analogous forms of life, but the 
truly alpine vegetation of the high mountains of Tas- 
mania contrasts in some important respects with that 
of the Australian Alps — namely, therein that under 
the prevalence of a much higher degree of humidity. 



192 FOREST CULTURE AND 

plants which delight to be bathed in clouds, or in the 
dense vapors of the surrounding Fern- tree valleys, 
are much more universal ; and that the number of 
peculiar alpine genera is much greater than here. 
Thus, while in Tasmania the magnificent Evergreen 
Beech ( Fagus Cunninghami) covers many of the 
ranges up to sub-alpine rises, it predominates as a for- 
est-tree in Victoria only at the remotest sources of 
the Yarra, the Latrobe, and the Goulburn rivers, and 
on Mount Baw-Baw. To this outpost of the Austra- 
lian Alps (now so accessible to metropolitan tourists) 
are restricted also several plants, such as Oxalis Ma- 
gellanica and Libertia Lawrencii, which are almost 
universal on all the higher hills of Tasmania. Fagus 
Cunninghami, though descending into our Fern- 
tree ravines, transgresses nowhere the Victorian land- 
boundaries, but a noble fagus-forest, constituted by a 
distinct and equally evergreen species, Fagus Moorei, 
crowns the high ranges on which the Bellinger and 
M'Leay rivers rise. This, however, the snowy moun- 
tains of Tasmania and of continental Australia have 
in common, that the majority of the alpine plants are 
not representing genera peculiar to colder countries, 
but exhibit hardy forms, referable to endemic Austra- 
lian genera, or such as are allied to them. So, as al- 
ready remarked, we possess alpine species, even of 
Eucalyptus and of Acacia, besides of hibbertia, oxylo- 
bium, bossisea, pultena)a, eriostemon, boronia didiscus, 
epacris, leucopogon, prostanthera, grevillea, hakea, 
persoonia, pimelea, kunzea, baeckea, stackhousia, 
mitrasacme, xanthosia, coprosma, velleya, prasophyl- 
lum ,• yet anemone, caltha, antennaria, gaultheria, 
alchemilla, seseli, Oenothera, huanaca, abrotanella, 



iigusticum, astelia, gunnera, and other northern or 
western types, are not altogether missing, though 
nowhere else to be found in Australia but in glacial 
regions. 

About half a hundred of the highland plants are 
strictly peculiar to Victoria ; the rest prove mainly 
identical with Tasraanian species ; but a few of ours, 
not growing in the smaller sister-land, are, strange 
as it may appear, absolutely conspecific with Euro- 
pean forms. Rather more than one hundred of the 
lowland plants ascend, however, to the glacial regions ; 
some of these are simultaneously desert-species. 

The only genus of plants absolutely peculiar to the 
Victorian territory, Wittsteinia, occurs as a dwarf sub- 
alpine plant, of more herbaceous than woody growth, 
restricted to the summits of Mount Baw-Baw; this, 
moreover, remained hitherto the only representative 
of vacciniese in all Australia ; it produces, like most 
of the order, edible berries. 

The verdant Summer - herbage of valleys, which 
snow covers during the Winter months, will render 
with increasing value of land- estates these free, airy, 
and still retreats in time fully occupied as pasturage 
during the warmer part of the year. Here, in shel- 
tered glens, we have the means of raising all the 
plants delighting in the coolest clime. Rye-culture 
could probably be carried on at considerable eleva- 
tion. 

Of all the phanerogamic plants of Tasmania, about 
one hundred and thirty are endemic ; of those about 
eighty are limited to alpine elevations, or descend 
from thence only into cool, umbrageous valleys. The 
generic types peculiar to the island are again almost 



194 FOREST CtTLTUBE AND 

all alpine (milligania, campy nema, hewardia, ptery- 
gopappus, tetracarpsea, anoclopetalum, cystanthe, pri. 
onotis, microcachrys, diselma, athrotaxis, pherosph?e- 
ra, belleudena, cenarrhenes, archeria), only acradenia 
and agastachys belonging seemingly to the lowlands, 
but show at once a fondness for a wet, insular clime. 
The few Tasmanian genera, represented besides only 
in Victoria, are richea, diplarrhena, drymophila, jun- 
cella. In the Tasmanian liighlands flora endemic 
shrubby asters and epacridese, and the singular endem- 
ic pines of various genera, constitute a marked feat- 
ure. A closer and more extended inquiry into the 
geological relation of great assemblages of vegetation 
will shed probably more light on the enigmatic laws 
by which the dispersion of plants is ruled. Austra- 
lian forms predominate also in Tasmania, at snowy 
heights, so Eucalyptus gunnii, E. coccifera, and E. 
urnigera. The famous Huon-pine (Dacrydium Frank- 
lini), the Palmheath (Richea pandanifolia), the celery, 
topped pine (Phyllocladus rhomboidalis), and the de- 
ciduous beech (Fagus Gunnii) ai*e among the most 
striking objects of its insular vegetation. Mosses, 
lichenastra, lichens, and conspicuous fungs abound 
both in alpine and low regions ; indeed, cryptogamic 
plants, except Algs and microscopic fungs, are no- 
where in Australia really frequent except in Tasmania, 
in the Australian Alps, and in the Fern-tree glens of 
Victoria and part of New South Wales. The Musk- 
tree (Aster argophyllus) of Tasmania and south-east 
Australia is the largest of the few trees produced by 
the vast order of compositse in any part of the globe, 
while Prostanthera lasianthos, its companion, exhibits 
the only real tree known in the extensive family of 



fiuCALYPTUS TEfiES. l95 

Labiatfe. The almost exclusive occupation of vast 
littoral tracts of Gippsland, and some of the adjoining 
islands, by the dwarf Xanthorrhoea minor, is remark- 
able. Mistletoes do not extend to Tasmania, though 
over every other part of Australia ; neither the Nar- 
doo (Marsilea quadrifolia), of melancholic celebrity, 
though to be found in every part of the continent, and 
abounding in innumerable varieties throughout the 
depressed parts of the interior. Equisetacece occur 
nowhere. The total of the species to be admitted as 
well-defined, and hitherto known, from all parts of 
Australia, approaches (with exclusion of. microscopic 
fungi) to ten thousand. 

It has been deemed of sufficient importance to ap- 
pend to this' brief memoir an index of all the trees 
hitherto discovered in any part of Australia.* Such 
statistics lead to reflection and comparison. They also 
bring more prominently before the contemplative 
mind the real access which in any branch of special 
knowledge may have been obtained. In this instance 
it is the only table with which this document has been 
burdened, though kindred lists might have readily 
been elaborated. Nor would this imperfect sketch of 
Australian vegetation have been extended to any de- 
tailed enumerations whatever did not the trees im- 
press on the vegetation of each country its most dis- 
tinctive feature, and had we not learned how great a 
treasure each land possesses in its timber— whether 
as raw product to artisans or as objects of therapeutic 
application, whether as material for the products of 
manifold factories or as the source of educts in the 
chemical laboratory ; whether as the means of afford- 
ing employment to the workman, or even as the me- 

* Index omitted. 



19^ i^ORESl: cttLTUiifi Aiffi 

diura for regulating the climate. May we revert only 
to the circumstance, as elucidating the great physio- 
graphic characters of countries and their mutual re- 
lation, that notwithstanding the close proximity of 
New Zealand, none of its trees (though very many of 
its herbs) are positively identical with any observed 
in Australia ; and yet, hundreds of ours can in no 
way be distinguished from Indian trees. Moreover, 
in a philosophical contemplation of the nature of any 
country and the history of its creation, our attention 
is likely to be in the first instance engaged in a survey 
of the constituents of its pristine forests, and greatly 
is it to be feared that in ages hence, when much of 
the woods will have sunk under ruthless axes, the 
deductions of advanced knowledge thereon will have 
to be based solely on evidence early placed on record. 
The marvellous height of some of the Australian, 
and especially Victorian trees, has become the subject 
of closer investigation since, of late, particularly 
through the miners' tracks, easier access has been 
afforded to the back-gullies of our mountain system. 
Some astounding data, supported by actual measure- 
ments, are now on record. The highest tree previ- 
ously known was a Karri -Eucalyptus. (Eucalyptus 
colossea), measured by Mr. Pemberton Walcott, in 
one of the delightful glens of the Warren River of 
western Australia, where it rises to approximately 
four hundred feet high. Into the hollow trunk of 
this Karri three riders, with an additional pack-horse, 
could enter and turn in it without dismounting. On 
the desire of the writer of these pages, Mr. D. Boyle 
measured a fallen tree of Eucalyptus amygdalina, in 
the deep recesses of Dandenong, and obtained for it 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 197 

the length of four hundred and twenty feet, with 
proportions of width, indicated in a design of a monu- 
mental structure placed in the Exhibition ; while Mr. 
G. Klein took the measurement of a Eucalyptus on 
the Black Spur, ten miles distant from Healesville, 
four hundred and eighty feet high! Mr. E. B. Heyne 
obtained at Dandenong as measurements of height of 
a tree of Eucalyptus amygdalina : Length of stem 
from the base to the first branch, two hundred and 
ninety -five feet; diameter of the stem at the first 
branch, four feet ; length of stem from first branch 
to where its top portion was broken off, seventy feet; 
diameter of the stem where broken ofi", three feet ; 
total length of stem up to place of fracture, three hun- 
dred and sixty - five feet ; girth of stem three feet 
from the surface, forty-one feet. A still thicker tree 
measured, three feet from the base, fifty-three feet in 
circumference. Mr. George W. Robinson ascertained, 
in the back-ranges of Berwick, the circumference of 
a tree of Eucalyptus amygdalina to be eighty - one 
feet at a distance of four feet from the ground, and 
supposes this Eucalypt, toward the sources of the 
Yarra and Latrobe rivers, to attain a height of half 
a thousand feet. The same gentleman found Fagus 
Cunningham! to gain a height of two hundred feet 
and a circumference of twenty-three feet. 

It is not at all likely that in these isolated inquiries 
chance has led to the really highest trees, which the 
most secluded and the least accessible spots may still 
conceal. It seems, however, almost beyond dispute, 
that the trees of Australia rival in length, though evi- 
dently not in thickness, even the renowned forest-gi- 
ants of California, Sequoia Wellingtonia, the highest 



198 li^OREsT CULTtJRE AKD 

of which, as far as the writer is aware, rise in their 
favorite haunts at the Sierra Nevada to about four 
hundred and fifty feet. Still, one of the mammoth 
trees measured, it is said, at an estimated height of 
three hundred feet, eighteen feet in diameter ! Thus 
to Victorian trees for elevation the palm must appa- 
rently be conceded. A standard of comparison we 
possess in the spire of the Munster of Strasbourg, the 
highest of any cathedral of the globe, which sends 
its lofty pinnacle to the height of four hundred and 
forty -six feet, or in the great pyramid of Cheops, 
four hundred and eighty feet high, which, if raised 
in our ranges, would be overshadowed probably by 
E ucalyptus- trees. 

The enormous height attained by not isolated, but 
vast masses of our timber-trees in the rich diluvial 
deposits of sheltered depressions within Victorian 
ranges, finds its principal explanation, perhaps, in the 
circumstance that the richness of the soil is combined 
with humid geniality of the climate, never sinking 
to the colder temperature of Tasmania, nor rising to 
a warmth less favorable to the strong development of 
these trees in New South Wales, nor ever reduced to 
that comparative dryness of air which even to some 
extent, in the mountain-ravines of South Australia, is 
experienced. The absence of living gigantic forms of 
animal life amidst these the hugest forms of the vege- 
table world is all the more striking. 

Statistics of actual measurement of trees compiled 
in various parts of the globe would be replete with 
deep interest, not merely to science, but disclose also, 
in copious instances, magnitudes of resources but lit- 
tle understood up to the present day. Not merely, 



ELrcALYPTLfS TKEElS. 109 

however, in their stupendous altitude, but also in 
their celerity of growth, we have, in all probability, 
to accede to Australian trees the prize. Extensive 
comparisons instituted in the Botanic Garden of this 
metropolis prove several species of Eucalyptus, more 
particularly Eucalyptus globulus, and Ecalyptus obli- 
qua, as well as certain Acacias — for instance, Acacia 
decurrens, or Acacia mollissima — far excelling in their 
ratio of d'evelopment any extra- Australian trees, even 
on dry and exposed si)ots, such into which spontane- 
ously our Blue Gum-tree would not penetrate. This 
marvellous quickness of growth, combined with a 
perfect fitness to resist drought, has rendered many 
of our trees famed abroad, especially so in countries 
where the supply of fuel or of hard woods is not read- 
ily attainable, or where for raising shelter, like around 
the Cinchona-plantations of India, the early and copi- 
ous command of tiill vegetation is of imperative im- 
portance. To us here this ought to be a subject of 
manifold significance. I scarcely need refer to the 
fact that for numerous unemployed the gathering of 
Eucalyptus-seeds, of which a pound weight sufiices 
to Biise many thousand trees, might be a source of 
lucrative and extensive employment ; but on this I 
wish to dwell : that in Australian vegetation we prob- 
ably possess the means of obliterating the rainless zone 
of the globe, to spread at last woods over our deserts, 
and thereby to mitigate the distressing drought, 
and to annihilate, perhaps, even that occasionally ex- 
cessive dry heat evolved by the sun's rays from the 
naked ground throughout extensive regions of the 
interior, and wafted with the current of air to the 
east and south — miseries from which the prevalence 



200 FOREST CULTURE ANt) 

of sea-breezes renders the more littoral tracts of West 
and North Australia almost free. But in the econo- 
my of nature the trees, beyond affording shade and 
shelter, and retaining humidity to the soil, serve 
other great purposes. Trees, ever active in sending 
their roots to the depths, draw unceasingly from below 
the surface-strata those mineral elements of vegetable 
nutrition on which the life of plants absolutely de- 
pends, and which, with every dropping leaf, is left as 
a storage of aliment for the subsequent vegetation. 
How much lasting good could not be effected, then, 
by mere scattering of seeds of our drought-resisting 
Acj^cias, and Eucalypts, and Casuarinas, at the termi- 
nation of the hot season along any water-course, or 
even along the crevices of rocks, or over bai*e sands 
or hard clays, after refreshing showers ? Even the 
rugged escarpments of the desolate ranges of Tunis, 
Algiers, and Morocco might become wooded ; even 
the Sahara itself, if it could not be conquered and 
rendered habitable, might have the extent of its oases 
vastly augmented ; fertility might be secured again 
to the Holy Land, and rain to the Asiatic plateau, or 
the desert of Atacama, or timber and fuel be furiish- 
ed to Natal and La Plata. An experiment instituted 
on a bare ridge near our metropolis demonstrates 
what may be done. 

Not Australia alone, but some other countries, have 
judiciously taken advantage of the facilities afforded 
by Australian tree- vegetation for raising woods — an 
object which throughout the interior might be ini- 
tiated by rendering this an additional purpose of the 
expeditions to be maintained in the field for territo- 
rial and physiographical exploration ; and more, it 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 201 

might deserve the reflection of the Legislature, which 
allots to the pastoral tenants their expansive tracts of 
country, whether or not along with squatting pur- 
suits — indeed, for the actual benefit of the pastoral 
occupant himself the inexpensive first steps for gen- 
eral forest-culture in the woodless regions should be 
commenced. 

Within the ranges which produce these colossal 
trees but few habitations exist; indeed, we might 
traverse a line of a thousand miles as yet without a 
dwelling. The clime is salubrious ; within the shel- 
tered glens it cannot in excellence be surpassed. Hot 
winds, from which our exposed plains, as well as any 
rises of northern and western aspect, so much suffer, 
never reach the still and mild vales of the forests ; 
frosts are only experienced in the higher regions. 
Speaking of Victoria especially, it is safe to assert that 
there alone many thousand square miles of mount- 
ainous country, timbered with Stringy-bark trees (Eu- 
calyptus obliqua) are as yet lying dormant for any 
other but isolated mining operations. And yet, might 
not families which desire to strike out a path of inde- 
pendent prosperity, which seek a simple patriarchal 
life in a salubrious locality of seclusion, and which 
command the needful strength of labor within their 
own circle, choose these happy glens as their perma- 
nent abodes? Though the timbered rises of the ranges 
may be as yet unlucrative for cultivation, or even be 
sterile, the valleys are generally rich, irrigated by 
clear brooks, and spacious enough for isolated homes, 
and the limited number of pasture animals pertain- 
ing to them. The costlier products of culture might 
be realized, especially so in the Fern-tree glens ; tea. 



202 FOREST CULTURE AND 

and possibly cinchona, and coffee also ; so, lucrative 
fibres, dye-plants of easy growth and simple prepara- 
tion, as instanced by grass-cloth, or madder ; or medi- 
cinal plants, such as senna, and various herbs, or, per- 
haps, even the Erythroxylon coca, a plant of almost 
fabulous properties. Or should the settler prefer, be- 
yond raising the simple requirements for his rural 
life, to devote his attention solely to the gain which 
the surrounding timber treasuries are eertain to offer, 
he will find ample scope for his energy and industry. 
The Eucalypts, as now proved by extensive and accu- 
rate experiments, will yield him tar in abundance ; 
they will furnish fibres, even those of Stringy-bark as 
one of the cheapest and most extensively available 
paper material. By a few simple appliances he may 
secure, simultaneously with the tar, also wood- vine- 
gar and wood-spirit; and these again might locally be 
at once converted into dye materials and varnishes. 
He might obtain potash from woods, and volatile oils 
from the leaves of Eucalypts in almost any quantity, 
by artless processes and with scarcely any cost. He 
might gather the gum -resins and barks for either 
medicinal or tanning purposes, or he might effect a 
trade in Fern- trees ; he might shake the Eucalyptus 
grains out of their capsules, and might secure locally 
other mercantile substances far too numerous to be 
enumerated here. Whoever may choose these ranges 
as a permanent home, and may direct thoughtfully his 
attention to the future, will recognize that the mere 
scattering of the acorns of the Cork-tree or the seeds of 
the Red Cedar over cleared and yet sheltered ground, 
or the planting of the vine and olive, will yield to his 
descendants sources of great riches. 



EUCALYPTUS TREES. 203 

In closing these concise and somewhat chaotic sug- 
gestions, which scarcely admit of methodical arrange- 
ment, unless by expansi9n into the chapters of a vol- 
ume, we may — indulging in a train of thought — pass 
from special to general considerations. 

Belgium, one of the most densely populated of all 
countries, and yet one of the most prosperous, nourish- 
ed within an area less than one half that of Tasmania 
a population three times exceeding that of all the 
Australian colonies ; yet one fifth of the Belgian ter- 
ritory consists of forests. Not to any considerable 
extent smaller than Europe, our continent is likely to 
support in ages hence a greater population ; because, 
while here no frigid zone excludes any portion of the 
territory from productiveness, or reduces it anywhere 
to very circumscribed limits, 'it embraces a wide trop- 
ical tract, destined to yield us products nowhere to be 
raised under the European sky. The comparatively 
unbroken uniformity of vast tracts of Australia cer- 
tainly restricts us for the magnificent sceneries and 
the bracing air of the countries of our youth here to 
the hilly coast-tracts ; but still we have not to endure 
the protracted colds of middle and northern European 
Winters, nor to contend with the climatic difficulties 
which beset tillage operations or pastoral pursuits, 
and which, by patient perseverance, could not be 
removed or be materially lessened. 

While we are deprived of advantages so pleasing 
and so important as those of large river communica- 
tions, we enjoy great facilities for land traffic, facili- 
ties to which every new discovery of coal-layers will 
add. 



204 FOREST CULTITRE. 

Judicious forest culture, appropriate to each zone, 
will vastly araeliorate the clime, and provide for the 
dense location of our race ; for transplanting of almost 
every commodity, both of the vegetable and animal 
empire, we possess, from the Alps to the Steppes, from 
the cool mountain forests to the tropic jungles, condi- 
tions and ample space. 

River- waters, now flowing unutilized to the ocean, 
when cast over the back plains, and artesian borings 
also, will effect marvellous changes. Steam power 
and the increased ingenuity of machinery applied to 
cultivation will render the virgin soil extensively 
productive with far less toil than in older countries, 
while the teachings of science will guard us against 
the rapacious systems of culture and the waste of fer- 
tilizers which well-nigh involved ruin to many a land. 
Of ferocious land animals Australia is free. We have 
neither to encounter extensive hordes of savages to 
dispute the possession of the soil, nor the still more 
dangerous opposition of half-civilized barbarians, such 
as for ages yet may obstruct the progress of civiliza- 
tion in the great interior of Africa. 

Our continent, it may be foretold prophetically, will 
ere long be regarded of so high a territorial value that 
no tract, however much disregarded now, will remain 
unoccupied. Our continent, surrounded moreover by 
the natural boundaries of three oceans, free and un- 
connected, must advance, by extraneous influences 
undisturbed, by ancient usages unretarded, to that 
greatness to which British sovereignty will ever give 
a firm stability. 




IMIiliiiiiiiliiiiMiiiiliiil P^iiiiiiiiwiwii 



FIFTH 



ANNUAL CATALOGUE 



OF THE 



Santa Barbara College 



Santa Barbara, California. 



m 



Board ni Bivectors, 

1875-6. 



Col. W. W. HOLLISTER, 
ELLWOOD COOPER, 
CHA.S. FERNALD, 
JOHN P. STEARNS, 
JOHN EDWARDS, 
CHARLES E. HUSE, 
F. W. FROST, 
WILLIAM M. EDDY, 
T. WALLACE MORE, 

a. P. te:^betts, 



©fiftc^rs and ©ammittfses* 

187S-6. 



ELLWOOD COOPEE. 

F. W. FEOST. 

^ecqetai[y. 
G. P. TEBBETTS. 

i^inance and JSuilding Committee. 
CHAS. FEENALD, CHAELES E. HUSE, 

J. P. STEAENS, JOHN EDWAEDS, 

G. P. TEBBETTS. 

ISxecutiue Committee. 
ELLWOOD COOPEE, T. WALLACE MOEE, 

Col. W. W. HOLLISTEE, F. W. FEOST, 
WILLIAM M. EDDY. 



B^ard ixi Instj^uctors, 



Peincipal. 
ELLWOOD COOPER. 

Associate Peincipal. 
Mes. ELLWOOD COOPER. 

Teachees. 
Prof. A. NEUMEYER, Miss LUCY E. WHITTON, 
Prof. C. H. SILLIMAN, Miss L. K. PERSHING, 
Prof. ALPHONSE BEL, Miss KATE BRONSON, 
Prof. M. J. GORDON, Miss S. L. ANDERSON. 



Students 

or TH8 

;^ki|tk Skf feki^ci College, 



1875-76. 



LIST OF PUPILS. 



ACADEMIC COURSE. 



Ayers, Jennie 
Bailard, Theresa E. 
Bailard, John 
Barnard, Frank E. 
Barnard, Nellie T>. 
Barhani, John H. 
Borrowe, Fannie 
Bowers, Anna A. 
Bowers, Demoss 
Bowers, John 
Brastow, George B. 
Bradbury, Nora A. 
Bronson, IjuIu 
Bronson, Kate 
Casebcore, Isbella 
Castinos, Albert 
Cook, Fairio 
Cook, Nina 
Coopci' Ellen 
Coopol*) Fuiin u! 
Uonant, Um T. S. 



Des Granges, Otto 
Dimmick, Walt-er 
Dugdale, Horace C. 
Dunne, James C. 
Duval, Charles S. 
Edwards, Anna 
Edwards, Charles 
El well, Frank 
Fernald, Beatrice 
Franklin, Anabel E. 
Franklin, Mrs. 
Frost, Clarinda • 
Gibbs, Annie 
Gibbs, George 
Gibbs, Lallra W. 
Gibbs, Latisian 
CHbbSj Mrs. E. 11. 
Green well, Arty C. 
Green well J Charles B. 
Ooai?, Josephine 
llttmptoii, Fannlo 



212 



SANTA BARBARA COLIiEGE. 



Hampton, Pallie 
Hampton, Jeff. 
Harrison, James K. 
Haight, Charles B. 
Harford, Freddie 
Hatch, Mrs. 
Hawley, Ernest S. 
Hawley, Lilian 
Hawley, Jessie 11. 
Hawley, Mrs. T. R. 
Hayne, Bennie 
Hayne, Alston 
Harris, Jake 
Higgins, Fred. L. 
Hill, Jessie 
Huse, Alice R. 
Johnson, Mackey 
Kalisher, Fannie 
Knapp, Sadia R. 
Lake, George B. 
Lake, Winnie 
Low, Fannie 
Lucas, Hattie M. 
Mayhew, Jennie 
McLaren, Anna 
McLaren, Jennie 
More, Belle 
More, Mary 
More, Wallace 
More, Alex. S. 
More, Willie 
Newmayer, Bene 
Newmayer, Bismarck 
Newmayer, Lillie 
Newmayer, Walter 
Norway, William R. 



Olsen, Fred. 
Olsen, Minnie 
Pacheco, John 
Perkins, Allie T. 
Perkins, Grace F. 
Perkins, Isabel D. 
Perkins, May W. 
Perin, Edi.th 
Pierce, Charles D. 
Pierce, Hiram 
Riggen, William 
Satford, Morton 
Sawtelle, Vivia F. 
Shaw, James B. 
Skeels, Katie 
Skeels, William 
Smith, De Witt 
Snodgrass, David C. 
Stearns, Edith 
Steel, .John Jay 
Steel, Willie 
Stevens, Albert B. 
Stoddard, Harrie 
Stone, George Fred. 
Stone, Luella 
Tallant, Lucy 
Tebbetts, Horace B. 
Tebbetts, John E. 
Tebbetts, Mollie V. 
Tryce, James 
Upson, Grace 
Walcott, Earle A. 
Walcott, Mabel 
Walcott, Maude 
Weldon, Jennie 
Wright, Sallie 



The Fuundatmn* 



Under the laws of California, in the year 1869, the 
CoLiiEGE OF Santa Barbara was incorporated. It 
owes its origin to the feeling that, with its health- 
giving breezes and almost perfect climate, southern 
California is destined to be the Paradise of America, 
and that consequently a necessity exists for an edu- 
cational institution which shall carry its pupils further 
than is the province of the public schools. The citi- 
zens of Santa Barbara and vicinity felt that the rap- 
idly - increasing population and wealth of their own 
county and those adjoining would justify considerable 
expense in providing for their children better means 
and methods of education. In obedience to this feel- 
ing, a number of public - spirited citizens of Santa 
Barbara organized a stock company, who erected suit- 
able buildings for the immediate wants. The success 
attained by their first efforts, and the encouragement 
of almost the entire community, induced the incor- 
porators to re-organize under the new Code, with a 
capital stock of One Hundred Thousand Dollars. 

The institution is governed by a Board of eleven 
Directors, who have been chosen from among the 
most prominent and intelligent citizens of the county. 
They serve only in order to promote the educational 



214 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 

interest of the State, and to open wider fields of learn- 
ing for the sons and daughters of the country. Their 
best thoughts are given to the Institution. 

Location. 
Santa Barbara, the seat of the college, lies on the 
coast, two hundred and ninety miles south of San 
Francisco. Situated to the south of the Santa Inez 
mountains, it is sheltered from the coast winds. The 
cool and invigorating sea-breeze renders the climate 
mild and even. All fruits common to temperate and 
semi-tropical climates grow luxuriantly in its vicinity. 
Frosts seldom come, and Winter is a word scarcely 
found in the language of its people. From January 
to January the trees are covered with leaves and the 
fields are green with the revolution of crops. The 
fevers often found in other localities of the same lati- 
tude are never experienced. The climate is very 
beneficial in cases of consumption and all pulmonary 
diseases. The advantages of its climate are so wide- 
ly admitted that people from all parts of the country are 
coming to make it their home. To no other locality 
can the parent send his child and be so assured that 
in every respect the climate is any nearer perfection. 

Character of the Institution. 
Directors and Faculty of Instruction pledge them- 
selves to do all in their power to make the Santa Bar- 
bara College absolutely, not relatively, a good institu- 
tion ; to requite the trust which the people place in 
them with the best possible instruction j and to cul- 
tivate among all their pupils true manliness and true 
womanliness. 



SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 215 

" Our plans of education are disposed to include 
all that the Past has handed down of good, all that 
the Future may offer to us. By the study of Lan- 
guage, Philosophy, and History, we inherit the rich 
experiences of Humanity ; by the study of Natural 
Science we search after the Laws of Creation, and 
reach out for the Divine." 

Regular attendance and punctuality at all recitations 
and exercises will be demanded. It will be impossi- 
ble for any pupil who does not attend to his entire 
duty and is not prompt at every exercise to long 
rerpain in the Institution and retain his class rank. 
Each recitation is a link in a chain. The loss of one 
lesson destroys the unity of all lessons given upon the 
same subject. All knowledge afterward obtained is 
incomplete. By absence or tardiness, the pupil not 
only injures himself, but impedes the entire class 
with which he is associated. The others must wait 
while the sulject is again explained to him. No 
pupil will be permitted to thus do himself and others 
injustice. 

It is our aim not k) burden students with arbitrary 
rules, and useless restraints. Students will be given 
all liberty consistent with their own welfare. The 
government is intended to be liberal but firm in 
character. It will be advisory rather than compulso- 
ry. We believe that he who teaches one to govern 
himself is a better teacher than he who governs a 
score by compulsion. 

The institution will be entirely free from sectarian 
bias. The pure morality and piety of the Scriptures, 
excluding everything sectarian and denominational, 
is the fo^undation of all moral and religious teachings. 



216 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 

The patrons, stockholders, and directors are members 
of every sect and denomination. Justice to them de- 
mands the utmost liberality. The Sabbath will be 
observed as a day of rest and religious teaching, and 
should be made the pleasantest of the week. Attend- 
ance upon Divine worship is expected, and parents 
are requested to signify the church which they pre- 
fer their children shall attend. An instructor will 
accompany the younger pupils. 

All classes are to be frequently visited by an ex- 
amining committee, M'hose duty it will be to see that 
they are making commendable progress, and report to 
the Board of Directors. It is requested that parents 
having children in the institution, or contemplating 
putting children under its charge, visit the class- 
rooms, and then consult with the Principal with re- 
gard to the progress made or desired. 

The College receives pupils of both sexes. It thus 

places itself in accord with the progressive spirit and 

the necessities of the West. Girls and boys have each 

an equal share in the instruction, and will be treated 

alike. 

Special Features. 

The points in which Santa Barbara College differs 
from most other educational institutions of a similar 
general character may be briefly summed as follows : 

1. Special attention is given to Physical Culture. 
Recognizing the great fundamental fact that a sound 
mind cannot exist without a sound body, we have 
given much thought to the physical development of 
those intrusted to us. 

The best gymnasium in the State, the only one con- 
nected with a school in California, is now completed 



BAiJTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 2l7 

and fitted up with all the apparatus necessary for prac- 
ticing both heavy and light gymnastics. Every pu- 
pil will have an opportunity daily to take part in the 
exercises. Physiological laws will be our guide in di- 
recting them. Parents should encourage their chil- 
dren to be earnest in these pursuits ; for in this way 
alone can the young be given sound bodies to supply 
vigor to inquiring minds. Disciplined thus in body, 
young men and young women will leave our institu- 
tion better fitted to use that knowledge which they 
have acquired, both for their own good and for the 
good of the community. 

2. The Modern Languages will receive special at- 
tention. The benefits arising from a study of the 
Modern Languages, both in respect to discipline and 
practical value, are so many and so well known that 
a list of them here is unnecessary. Those who desire 
will be offered an opportunity constantly to converse 
in French, German, and Spanish. 

3. Vocal music will be taught every pupil. In- 
strumental music will receive special attention. All 
who have thought upon the subject acknowledge the 
refining influence which music has upon the individ- 
ual. It also affords measureless comfort and enjoy- 
ment to the home circle. We need not assure parents 
that this important branch of study will always be 
superintended by a teacher of much experience and 
culture. 

4. Every pupil will be instructed in the rudiments 
of Drawing. By no other method is a pupil taught 
so well to observe minutely and attentively the phe- 
nomena of nature as by a course of instruction in the 
art of Drawing. If any one doubts this, let him sit 



2l8 SANTA BARBARA C0LLEG]E!. 

down and attempt to put upon paper the sinoiplest 
object within sight. Pie will be skeptical no longer. 
Drawing is but an attempt to reproduce what we see, 
and is the test of the accuracy of oar observation and 
comparison. 



©Bueval Statement, 



The Santa Barbara College contains eight depart- 
ments, with six grades in each. 

1st, Mathematics. 
2d. Natural Sciences. 

3d. English. 

4th. History and Geography. 

5th. Modern Languagen. 

6th. Ancient Languages. 

7th. Drawing and Painting. 

8th. Vocal and Instrumental Music. 

The classes are : The Elementary, Preparatory, 
First Year, Second Year, Junior Year, and Senior 
Year. 



EaursB txf Study/ 



ELEMENTARY CLASS. 
First Term. 

Arithmetic, Robinson's Rudiments. 

Geography, Guyot's Primary. 

English, Swinton's Language Primer. 
*Penmanship, Payson, Dunton and Scribner's No. 3. 

Reading, Bancroft's Fourth Reader. 

Drawing, Knudsen's first year's instruction in draw- 
ing. 

Spelling, Swinton's Word Book to Lesson 106. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 

French, Oral Exercises. 

German, Ahn's Rudiments of the German Lan- 
guage. 

Spanish, Oral Exercises. 

Second Term. 

Arithmetic, Robinson's Rudiments. 
History, Swinton's First Lessons. 
English, Swinton's Language Primer. 
Reading, Bancroft's Fourth Reader. 
Penmanship, No. 4, 

Spelling, Swinton's Word Book to end of first year's 
work. 



220 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 

Drawing, Conclusion of first year's instruction. 
Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 
French, Ahn's first Primer. 
German, Ahn's Rudiments continued. 
Spanish, Oral Exercises continued ; first lessons in 
reading. 

Science, Hotze's First Lessons. 

PREPARATORY CLASS. 
First Term. 

Arithmetic, Robinson's Practical and Intellectual. 

Geography, Guyot's Elementary. 

English, Swinton's Language Lessons. 

Reading, Bancroft's Fifth Reader. * 

Penmanship, No. 5. 

Spelling, Swinton's Word Book, second year's work 
to lesson 106. 

Drawing, Second year's instruction in drawing. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 

French, Ahn's first course. 

German, Ahn's Method of learning the German 
language to ex. 60. 

Spanish, Elements of Grammar. 

Science, Youman's Botany. 

Second Term. 

Arithmetic, Robinson's Practical and Intellectual. 

History, Higginson's United States. 

English, Swinton's Language Lessons. 

Penmanship, No. 6. 

Reading, Bancroft's Fifth Reader. 

Drawing, Conclusion of second year's instruction. 



SANTA BAKBARA COLLEGE. 221 

Spelling, Swlnton's Word Book to end of second 
year's work. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 

French, Ahn's first course concluded ; colloquial ex- 
ercises. 

German, Ahn's Method continued. 

Spanish, Spelling ; colloquial exercises. 

Science, Morse's Zoology. 

FIRST YEAR. 

First Term. 

Arithmetic, Robinson's Practical and Intellectual. 

Geography, Guyot's Intermediate. 

English, Swinton's Progressive Grammar. 

Penmanship, No. 7. 

Spelling, Swinton's Word Analysis, begun. 

Drawing, Third year's instruction in drawing. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 

French, Ahn's second course; verbs, 

Spanish, Ahn's Grammar. 

German, Otto's Grammar. 

Science, Physiology. 

Second Term. 

Arithmetic, Robinson's Practical and Intellectual, 
completed. 

History, History of England. 
English, Swinton's School Composition. 
Penmanship, No. 8. 

Spelling, Swinton's Word Analysis, completed. 
Drawing, Conclusion of Third year's instruction. 
Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 
11 



222 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 

French, Ahn's Second Course concluded ; Hachet- 
te's First Reader ; irregular verbs. 

German, Otto's Grammar ; exercises in composition. 

Spanish, Ahn's Grammar, continued ; irregular 
verbs ; First Reader of Mantilla. 

Science, Introduction to Geology (Dana). 

SECOND YEAR. 
First Term. 

Mathematics, Robinson's Higher Arithmetic, and 
Elementary Algebra. 

Geography, Guyot's Common School. 

English Composition and Rhetoric, Word Analysis. 

Penmanship, No. 9. 

Drawing, Crayon drawing. 

Spelling, McElligott's Manual. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 

French, Fasquelle's Grammar ; First Reader con- 
cluded. 

German, Exercises in writing German ; translation. 

Spanish, De Torno's combined Grammar ; Second 
Reader of Mantilla ; elements of composition. 

Science, Gray's Botany. 

Latin, Harkness' Latin Grammar and Reader. 

Greek, Goodwin's Greek Grammar and Leighton's 
Reader. 

second term. 

Mathematics, Robinson's Higher Arithmetic and 
Elementary Algebra, completed. 

History, Swinton's Outlines. 

English, Composition and Rhetoric, Word Analysis. 

Penmanship, No. 10. 



SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 223 

Drawing, Crayon drawing concluded. 

Spelling, McEUigott's Manual. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 

French, Fasquelle's Grammar continued; Elements 
of Composition ; Reading of Guillaume Tell (Lamar- 
tine). 

German, Petermann's First Lesebuch. 

Spanish, De Torno's Grammar continued ; Roemer's 
Reader ; Conversation. 

Science, Chemistry. 

Latin, Harkness' Introduction to Latin Composi- 
tion ; Caesar's Commentaries, books I. andll. 

Greek, Jones's or Arnold's Exercises; Xenophon's 
Anabasis begun. ^ 

JUNIOR YEAR. 
First Ter]\i. 

Mathematics, Robinson's University Algebra to 
Equations ; Da vies' Geometry, books I. , II. and III. 

History, Guizot's History of Civilization. 

English, Underwood's British Authors. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental, 

Spelling, Study of Words. 

French, Composition; Grammar continued ; Lalle- 
magne (Mad. de Stael). 

German, Whitney's Grammar and Exercises. 

Spanish, Ollendorfs Grammar ; Introduction to 
Spanish classics. 

Science, Quackenboss' Natural Philosophy. 

Latin, Cssear's Commentaries, books III. and IV.; 
Cicero's Orations against Cataline. 

Greek, Boise's First Greek Lessons ; Anabasis. 



224 sAntA bahbaea coLLEtiii. 

Second Term. 

Mathematics, Kobinson's University Algebra to Se- 
ries. Da vies' Geometry, books IV., V. and VI. 

History, Hopkins' American Ideas. 

English, Underwood's American Authors. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 

Spelling, Study of Words. 

French, Correspondence ; Conversation ; Introduc- 
tion to Classics. 

German, Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea^ 

Spanish, Correspondence ; Conversations ; Classics. 

Science, Mineralogy, lectures. 

Latin, Cicero de Amicitia ; J^neid. 

Greek, First three books of the Anabasis completed. 
Smith's History of Greece. 

SENIOR -YEAR. 
First Term. 

Mathematics, Davies' Geometry, and Robinson's 
University Algebra completed. 

History, Ancient History. 

English, Elements of Criticism. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 

Spelling, Words and their Uses, by Richard Grant 
Whits. 

French, Grammaire complete de Poitevin ; Compo- 
sition ; French Classics. 

German, Lessing. 

Spanish, Gramatica de la Academia ; Conversation; 
Composition. 

Science, Guyot's Physical Geography. 

Latin, First Six Books of the Jilneid completed. 

Greek, Homer's Iliad, three books ; Prosody. 



SANTA BARBARA COLX,EGE. 225 

SECOND TERM. 

Mathematics, Davies' Trigonometry and Mensura- 
tion. 

History, Lord's Modern History. 

English, Elements of Criticism. 

Music, Vocal and Instrumental. 

French, Grammaire de Poite vin, concluded ; Mod- 
ern Literature ; Conversation ; Philology of the French 
language. 

German, Goethe's Faust. 

Spanish, Modern Literature of Spain and South 
America compared. 

Science, Burritt's Geography of the Heavens. 

Latin, Odes of Horace. 

Greek, Iliad continued. 

OPTIONAL STUDIES. 

Book-keeping, Single and Double Entry. 

Instrumental Music, Piano and Violin. 

Special Singing Lessons. 

Painting and Special Drawing. 

The grade of each pupil is determined at the time 
of admission, by a careful examination in his or her 
previous studies ; and at the close of each subsequent 
term the pupil is advanced to the next higher grade, 
provided that on examination he or she is found quali- 
fied. 

The lack of thoroughness in the elementary branches 
on the part of the older pupils who enter the college — 
indeed, the almost total neglect of training in these 
important steps of education, makes it necessary for 
us to advise those who are looking forward to placing 



226 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 

their children under the care of this institution to 
see that this elementary work be carefully looked 
after, so that when these same children enter they 
may be able to grade with pupils who have come up 
through the different classes of this school. 

To accommodate those who may wish to have their 
children's education begin in this school, we have 
established, in connection with it, a Kindergarten 
on the most improyed plan. 



SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 



227 



TIME-TABLE— SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 



a 


o 


o 

a 




Ti 


and 
uages. 


t d. 


Eb 
pq 
o 
1 




Is 


d 


History an 
Geography 


Ancient 
Mod. Lang 


•S 5 
^ S 

U (U 

ft P-t 


9:00 A.M. 


Sr. 


E. 


P. 


F. 


S. 


J. 


9:45 " 


J. 


Sr. 


E. 


P. 


F. 


S. 


10:30 " 


S. 


J. 


Sr. 


E. 


P. 


F. 


11:15 " 


F. 


S. 


J. 


Sr. 


E. 


P. 


2:00 P.M. 


P. 


F. 


S. 


J. 


Sr. 


E. 


2:45 " 


E. 


P. 


F. 


S. 


J. 


Sr. 


3:30 " 


B. 

























School opens at 8:45 A. m., fifteen minutes being 
occupied in the morning exercises. The school-day 
is divided into seven recitation periods, with five- 
minute recess between each recitation. Drawing 
will alternate with writing, and reading with vocal 
music. In the table, Sr. stands for Senior Class; J, 
Junior Class; S, Second Year Class; F, First Year 
Class ; P, Preparatory Class ; E, Elementary Class ; 
and B, for Book-keeping. 



Miscellanetxus. 



Day Pupils. 
Kindergarten course, board, lights, washing, 
and tuition in all studies (excepting those un- 
der the head of extra charges), per term of 

five months.. $140 

Elementary course 150 

Preparatory course, with first, second, junior 

and senior years 175 

Where two children ocQupy the same sleeping- 
room a deduction per term of $12.50 each will be 
made. 

Extra Charges. 

Piano or Violin Lessons, each 5 00 per month. 

Special Singing Lessons 5 00 '< '< 

Painting and Special Drawing 5 00 <' << 

Book-keeping.. 2 00 << «< 

When more than one modern lan- 
guage is taken, an extra charge 

willbemadeof 5 00 << " 

Books and stationery Jw the use of pupils are fur. 
nishedfree of charge. They must, however, be kept in 
perfect order, and be returned to the school. All abused 
articles will be charged. Books shoidd be covered. 



Pupils, in addition to their ordinary wearing appa- 
rel and toilet articles, will be require dto furnish nothing 
but a pair of heavy colored blankets. Each article of 
apparel must be marked with the pupil's name in full ; 
otherwise the laundry cannot be responsible. 

Calender Year — 1876-77. 

Begins August 1st, 1876. 

Ends May 24th, 1877. 

Vacation. 

Begins December 15th, 187G. 

Ends January 8th, 1877. 

General. Remarks. 

Pupils will not be received in the Boarding Depart- 
ment unless they can furnish satisfactory evidence of 
good moral character, and give sufficient security for 
the prompt payment of their bills. 

Any donations to the cabinets or library will be 
gladly received. 

All possible care will be taken of pupils who may 
become sick. Parents may rest assured they will be 
early informed of any illness on the part of their chil- 
dren. 

A variety of good and wholesome food will be put 
upon the table, and every means adopted to remove 
the common prejudice against the board supplied by 
educational institutions. 

Simplicity in dress is suggested. No uniform has 
been deemed advisable, but, in order better to per- 
form the various exercises in gymnastics, a loose 
attire is essential. 

All bills payable at the end of every four weeks. 



230 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 

Pupils are requested to make no presents to teach- 
ers. It is hard to accept, still harder to refuse. 

Pupils guilty of- habitual disorder, insubordination , 
or immorality, will be sent before the Board of Di- 
rectors. 

The only acceptable excuse for absence or tardiness 
is sickness or unavoidable prevention. 

Regulations foe, Boarding Pupils. 

Rising bell at 7 o'clock Dinner at 12:30 P. M, 

Breakfast at 7 :45 Supper at 6 P. M. 

Retiring bell at ' p. m. 

Each pupil, on entering the college, obtains a copy 
of the Rules to be observed, and a Time-table show- 
ing how he or she is employed every hour daily- 

Tn the Teacb^rs* 

First. You should be well qualified. You should 
have the knowledge of the science, which you can 
acquire by close application only, under an able teach- 
er, for a considerable length of time. 

Second. Secure the confidence and respect of your 
class by thorough teaching and a gentlemanly de- 
portment on all occasions. 

Third. Strive to have your class make the degree 
of advancement which will recommend you to to the 
public as an able teacher. 

Fourth. Stand or sit before your class, place your 
eyes upon the whole, and give special attention to 
him who is the process of analysis. 

Mfth. Give each member of the class the amount 
of time for the examination of his subject which his 
peculiar structure of mind may require. 



SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 231 

Sixth. Never drill your class unlesfj you have the 
page in which you are exercising them. 

Seventh. Allow no time to elapse between the 
piqnPs error and yoin- correction. 

Eighth. Do not interrupt the process of analysis 
with a long exjilanation. Say wrong, sir, or wrong. 
Utter these words the very moment in which he com- 
mits the error. 

Ninth. You should speak with propriety. You 
should set an example which your pupils may safely 
follow. 

Tenth. Do not play with your knife, with your 
I'lder, with your walking-stick, with your book, with 
your x>encil, with your watch-chain, with your fingers, 
etc. , etc. , while you are teaching. No man of sound 
mind will ever waste his time in the practice of these 
dandy tricks. 

Eleventh. You should not permit your pupils to 
indulge in any of the above crazy feats. Pupils are 
much disposed to be shaking their feet, thumping the 
books and tables with their fingers, twisting and turn- 
ing their persons ; these are pranks which modest 
persons will never play off upon themselves or others. 
All buffoonery, debasing jests, scurrility, and low 
mirth are entirely destructive to anything like pi'og- 
ress ; and all who indulge in them, whether young 
or old, rich or poor, should be cut off from the class 
at once. 

Twelfth. You should not permit one pupil to teach 
another while you are giving instructions. Each 
member should listen to the teacher. 

Thirteenth. Devote all your spare hours to the study 
of valuable books ; acquire all the information which 



232 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 

your health and opportunities will permit. The more 
knowledge you have the better you can teach. Never 
slight the poor, nor flatter the rich ; view all as the 
children of one Father. Do all the good you can, and 
prevent all the harm in your power. 

Fourteenth. The teachers will be held responsible 
for the books, pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers, and ink* 
wells belonging to the several departments over which 
they preside ; also for the defacing of desks, walls, or 
black-boards. 

Ta The Students. 

<< On Study. Sit down to your studies every day 
under the deep impression that what you have to do 
demands your best powers and your utmost diligence. 
Strive to acquire the habit of close and fixed atten- 
tion in study. He who has not learned the art of 
fastening his mind on the subject, and of holding that 
subject strictly and firmly before it, will never look 
deeply into anything ; will never accomplish anything 
which deserves the name of investigation. 

Constantly implore the aid of the Holy Spirit in 
study. The duty of humbly and importunately ask- 
ing the blessed Spirit's influence to sanctify our affec- 
tions, and to aid us in cultivating all the graces and 
virtues of the Christian life, will not, I suppose, be 
disputed by any one who has the smallest tincture of 
piety. Never imagine that any valuable amount of 
knowledge, and especially of accurate knowledge, is 
to be obtained without labor. Leave nothing till you 
have done it well. Skimming over the surface of 
any subject is of little use. Passing on to something 



SANTA BARBARA COIiLEGE. 23o 

else before that which precedes is lialf understood is 
really oftentimes worse than useless. Bring your ac- 
quaintance with any subject to the test of writing. 
It is wonderful how far the crudeness and inadequacy 
of a man's knowledge, on a given subject, may be 
hidden from his own mind, until he attempts to ex- 
press what he knows on paper. He then finds him- 
self at a loss at every step, and cannot proceed with- 
out much extension, and no less correction of his for- 
mer attainments. Carefully maintain order in study. 
He who does not study upon a plan will never pursue 
his studies to much advantage. Be a close student 
through life. 

A good scholar. It is found to be a great deal easi- 
er to become a good scholar than an indifferent one. 
He who studies everything thoroughlj', to which he 
turns his attention, doubles his power at almost every 
step. All men, whether they understand the philos- 
ophy of language or not, judge, and generally very 
correctly, of the improvements of any man's mind by 
the ease with which they understand what he pro- 
poses to communicate. There can be no accurate 
thinking, and of course no correct reasoning, witliout 
a precise and correct use of words. 

1. Every pupil must conform in all respects to the 
regulations of the College. 

2. Pupils late, and those returning after absence, 
must, before joining their classes, present a written 
excuse, signed by parent or guardian. 

3. When the College-bell rings, every pupil is at 



234 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 

once to go to his class-room, and take his place quiet- 
ly and orderly, having all necessary books, pencils, 
etc., etc. 

4. AVhen the lesson is finished, every pupil is to 
leave the class - room quietly and orderly ; and all 
shouting, pushing, running, and boisterous behaviour 
about class-room doors at the hours of meeting, chang- 
ing or dismissal of classes, are strictly prohibited. 

o. No playing or jumping over forms or desks is al- 
lowed in any class-room at any time. 

(5. When dismissed, each boy or girl is at once to 
proceed to the play-ground, or go home. Loitering 
in or about class-rooms is strictly prohibited. 

7. All school-books must be covered and kept as 
clean as possible ,• and no writing on or destroying 
books will be permitted. 

8. No school-books are to be left lying about any of 
the class-rooms or College premises. 

9. No pupil is permitted to destroy or injure pens, 
desks, maps, windows, or any College property what- 
ever; all such damages to be repaired at the expense 
of the defaulter. 

10. No pupil is permitted to cut or write upon the 
desks, offices, walls, boards, fences, or other College 
furniture or property. 

11. Throwing stones or other missiles within the 
College grounds, or in the roads or streets adjoining, 
is strictly prohibited. 

12. When a pupil accidentally or otherwise breaks 
a window, or injures College property, he must im- 
mediately report it to the oiflcer on duty. 

13. No waste paper is to be thrown about class- 
rooms, premises, or play -ground, but into <<the 
waste-paper box." 



SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 2^5 

H. Every pupil must carefully prepare all lessons 
prescribed ; and no excuse will be sustained for non- 
preparation, except a written one from a parent or 
guardian, 

15. Quiet, order, decorum, and gentlemanly con- 
duct must be strictly observed at all times. 

16. Every pupil must be respectful and obedient to 
masters. Any marks of disrespect or impertinence 
in word or manner will be summarily punished. 

17. The use of all improper language is strictly pro- 
hibited ; and any pupil who persists in it, after hav- 
ing been warned, will be expelled from the College. 

1|IuIbs far Baarding H^upils* 

1. The use of tobacco positively forbiddex. 
Under no circumstances will a boy be allowed to use 
tobacco in any form. 

2. Boys will be allowed to ramble on the hills' on 
Saturdays, also to take early morning walks ; but no 
boy, young or oul, will be allowed to go doioii town 
unless accompanied by a teacher. 

3. Not more than two boj's will occupy the same 
sleeping-room, and no visiting in each other's rooms 
will be permitted unless by special permission from 
a teacher and for a special purpose. No jumping on 
beds or romping of any kind is allowed in bed- rooms. 

4. Boys who rise early, and before the rising-bell, 
must wear slippers so as not to disturb the household 
or those who desire rest. 

5. Boys are required to keep their rooms in perfect 
order and appear at the table with hair and clothes 
brushed, boots blacked and nails cleaned, and must 
bathe every week. 



236 SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 

6. Girls will not be allowed to go outside the Col- 
lege grounds unless accompanied with a teacher. 
Pupils will be encouraged to walk out every day at 
four, when the day's exercises are over. A teacher 
will always be in readiness to go With them. 

7. Girls will be expected to make their own beds, 
and to keep their rooms in perfect order. 

8. No pupil, either boy or girl, will be allowed to 
visit friends of their parents, unless under the super- 
vision of a teacher, as they might make acquaintances 
whose company may retard the progress in their stud- 
ies. 

9. Pupils who do not receive instruction in instru- 
mental music will not be allowed to use the pianos. 
Those receiving instruction will have a fixed time 
for practice, and no disturbance by the presence of 
other pupils during the practice periods will be per- 
mitted. It has been found that indifferent thumping 
for mere pastime is detrimental to progress. All 
pianos will be closed when not required for schedule 

use. 

10. Pupils will not be permitted to attend theatres, 

entertainments, or places of amusement of any kind, 
neither to go out in the evenings. On Sunday eve- 
nings, from 7 to 8, instruction will be given in Bible 
History. 

H. Perfect silence must prevail in the buildings 
after 0:15 p, m. 



SANTA BARBARA COLLEGE. 237 



Tti 3tfav8i:it8* 



The Rules aud Regulations have been Inserted that 
parents may know just what is expected of their chil- 
dren. 

The college curriculum is laid down on a plan that 
will not overwork pupils ; but in order to maintain a 
good standing in any grade it will require application, 
industry, and study. Idle boys, indifferent to their 
recitations, will not be tolerated, but excused from the 
school. Irregular attendance or absence, unless caus- 
ed by sickness, cannot be permitted. The object of 
the school is to make students, to teach children how 
to apply themselves, that they may become scholars, 
and that their conduct may be unexceptional. Too 
many are of the opinion that school work tends to 
weaken the constitution of children ; the effect is quite 
to the contrary ; at least nine out of every ten whose 
parents are able to give a good education at private 
schools will be benefited by strict school discipline. 
We do not mean overwork — but work. It refines the 
mind and strengthens the body. Nothing is so dan- 
gerous as idleness, and parents who do not wish their 
children to study or to come under the Rules and 
Regulations had better not send them. 

Lectures, 

A course of ten lectures will be delivered in the 
College Hall upon various subjects during the Fall 
and Winter. Proceeds for the benefit of the College 
Library. (Free to the pupils.) 



ERRATA 



Page G, fourteenth line from top, Prof. Lowe, in- 
stead of Lovoe. 

Page 44, fiftli line from the bottom, toe have sold, 
instead of ive sold have. 

Page 224, ninth line from bottom, White, instead 
of Whits. 

Page 228, under the head of '< Expenses," Day 
Pupils should read Boarding Pupils. 

The following description of five varieties of Euca- 
lyptus-trees should have been inserted on folio 38 : 

Eucalyptus goniocalyx, F. v. Mueller. — From Cape 
Otway to the southern parts of New South Wales. A 
large tree, which should be included among those for 
new plantations. Its wood resembles, in many re- 
spects, that of E. globulus. For house-building, fence- 
rails, and similar purposes, it is extensively employed 
in those forest districts where it is abundant, and has 
proved itself a valuable timber. 

Eucalyptus hemiphloia, F. v. Mueller.— New South 
Wales and South Queensland. To be regarded as a 
timber - tree of great excellence, on the authority of 
the Rev. Dr. WooUs. It is famous for the hardness 
and toughness of its timber, which is used for shafts, 
spokes, plow-beams, and similar utensils. 

Eucalyptus Leucoxylon, F. v. Mueller. — The ordi- 
nary iron-bark tree of Victoria and some parts of 
South Australia and New South Wales. As the sup- 



ply of its very durable timber is falling sliort, and as 
it is for some purposes superior to that of almost any 
other Eucalypt, the regular culture of this tree over 
wide areas should be fostered, especially as it can be 
raised on stony ridges not readily available for ordi- 
nary husbandry. The wood is sometimes pale, or in 
other localities rather dark. The tree is generally 
restricted to the lower Silurian sandstone and slate 
formation, with iron - stone and quartz. It is rich in 
Kino. E. sideroxylon is a synonym. 

Eucalyptus maculata, Hooker. — A spotted Gum- 
tree of New South Wales and South Queensland. A 
lofty tree, the wood- of which is employed in ship- 
building, wheelwrights' and coopers' work. The 
heart- wood as strong as that of British Oak (Rev. Dr. 
Woolls). 

Eucalyptus obliqua, L'Heritier.* — The ordinary 
stringy-bark tree, attaining gigantic dimensions. The 
iliost extensively -distributed and most gregarious of 
all Eucalypts, from Spencer's Gulf to the southern 
parts of New South Wales, and in several varieties 
designated by splitters and other wood -workers by 
different names ; most extensively used for cheap 
fencing - rails, palings, shingles, and any other rough 
wood-work, not to l)e sunk under ground nor requir- 
ing great strength or elasticity. The bulk of wood 
obtained from this tree in very poor soil is perhaps 
larger than that of any other kind, and thus this spe- 
cies can be included even here, where it is naturally 
common and easily redisseminated, among the trees 
for new forest plantations in barren, woodless tracts 
of our own country, to yield readily and early a sup- 
ply of cheap and easily fissile wood. 



TEMPERATURE OF AIR IN SHADE FOR THE LAST 

FOURTEEN YEARS. 

From the Observatory Records at Melbourne. 





HIGHEST. 


LOWEST. 


MEAN. 




111-2 
117-4 

100 
108-0 




27 
27-5 
22 
30 


57-6 


At Sandhurst 


59-0 


At Ballarat 


53.2 


At Portland 

At Port Albert 


61-5 
5G.5 







RAINFALL AT MELBOURNE. 



INCH. 

In 1857 28-90 

lu 1858 2(3-02 

In 1859 21-80 

In 1860 25-40 

In ISei 2915 



INCH. 

In 1862 22-08 

In 1803 36 43 

In 1864 27-40 

In 1865 15 94 

In 1866 22-41 



INCH. 

In 1867 25-79 

In 1868 18-27 

In 1869 24-59 

lu 1870 33-75 

In 1871 30-17 



TEM. OF AIR IN SHADE AT TWOFOLD BAY, 187L 

(Corresponding to the lowlands of East Gipps Land. ) 
From the Observatory Records of Sydney. 



January 68-1 

I'e iruary 67 - ti 

March 

April 

May 

June 

July 

August 



64-0 
61-5 
59-4 
53-5 
52-7 
52 8 
September ' 56-7 



October. 
November. 



-1 
63-4 
December 1 70-4 



75-0 
72-9 
70-4 
68-4 
64-6 
59-9 
60-3 
60 8 
63-8 
65-9 
71-6 
79-7 



61-2 
62-3 
57 7 
54-5 
54-2 
47-1 
45-0 
44-7 
49 5 
50-2 
55 2 
611 



E. MAX. 


E. MIN. 


72 





39 




68 





41 




73 





44 




76 





4-2 




81 





47 




106 





54 





4-570 
12-350 
1-500 
2-540 
12-0(10 
5-640 
0-790 
- 690 
1-530 
8-270 
2-390 
1-470 



Go -7" mean annual temperature. 53-740 inclies rainfall for the year. 

TEM. OF AIR IN SHADE AT TWOFOLD BAY, 1872. 

From the Magistrate's Office at Edeu. 



Deg. 

January 88-0 

February 830 

March 81-0 

Al)ril 62-0 

May G2-0 



MIN. 


r'fall. 


Deg. 


Inches. 


61-0 


3-15 


630 


1-15 


58-0 


1-92 


55-0 


1-03 


47-0 


108 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDDDflfllia'^fi # 



